“There is one thing beyond the reach of perversity. The inevitable failure of history, she will judge us”

“There are things greater than our wisdom, beyond our justice. The right and wrong of this we cannot say, and it is not for us to judge.”

“Each of these sides of Emerson—The Plotinus and the Montaigne-Bacon—requires the other side. The highest goals or ambitions are inevitably judged by whether or not one can take concrete, measurable steps to reach them, while the practical, workaday side of things is most interesting to Emerson when it serves or leads to something great.”

“Failure is inevitable. Success is elusive.”

“some people meet the way the sky meets the earth, inevitably, and there is no stopping or holding back their love. It exists in a finished world, beyond the reach of common sense.”

“Words are but symbols for the relations of things to one another and to us; nowhere do they touch upon absolute truth…. Through words and concepts we shall never reach beyond the wall off relations, to some sort of fabulous primal ground of things.”

“Still, she knows one thing for certain: never judge a relationship unless you are the one wrapped up in its arms.”

“The mode by which the inevitable is reached is effort.”

“Most great people have attained their greatest success just one step beyond their greatest failure.”

“Some of us will do our jobs well and some will not, but we will all be judged on one thing: the result. ”