"The pest of society is egotists...." - Quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson

“It is the secret of the world that all things subsist and do not die, but only retire a little from sight and afterward return again.”

“I do then with my friends as I do with my books. I would have them where I can find them, but I seldom use them.”

“Some of the sweetest hours in life, in retrospect will be found to have been spent with books.”

“I know perfectly well my own egotism.”

“In good company, the individuals merge their egotism into a social soul exactly co-extensive with the several consciousnesses there present.”

“Modest egotism is the salt of conversation; you do not want too much of it, but if it is altogether omitted, everything tastes flat.”

“I am interested only in the relations of a people to the rearing of the individual man, and among the Greeks the conditions were unusually favourable for the development of the individual; not by any means owing to the goodness of the people, but because of the struggles of their evil instincts.With the help of favourable measures great individuals might be reared who would be both different from and higher than those who heretofore have owed their existence to mere chance. Here we may still be hopeful: in the rearing of exceptional men.”

“No doubt it was necessary to civilize man in relation to man. That work is already advanced and is making progress every day. But man must be civilized also in relation to nature.”

“To educate the wise man, the State exists; and with the appearance of the wise man, the State expires. The appearance of charactermakes the state unnecessary. The wise man is the State.”