Waldo Butters Quotes

Sullen monosyllabism, a sure sign of sleep deprivation. ~ Jim Butcher

We are not going to die."
Butters stared up at me, pale, his eyes terrified. "We're not?"
"No. And do you know why?" He shook his head. "Because Thomas is too pretty to die. And because I'm too stubborn to die." I hauled on the shirt even harder. "And most of all because tomorrow is Oktoberfest, Butters, and polka will never die. ~ Jim Butcher

We grizzle every day. I see no need of it. Whilst we converse with what is above us, we do not grow old, but grow young. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

As the gardener, by severe pruning, forces the sap of the tree into one or two vigorous limbs, so should you stop off your miscellaneous activity and concentrate your force on one or a few points. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

One single idea may have greater weight than all the men, animals, and machines for a century. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

But what sent his face clear down off his skull and broke him in two, though, was he said when he saw the Pam-shiny empty biscuit pan on top of the stove and the plastic rind of the peanut butter's safety-seal wrap on top of the wastebasket's tall pile. The little locket-picture in the back of his head swelled and became a sharp-focused scene of his wife and little girl and little unborn child eating what he now could see they must have eaten, last night and this morning, while he was out ingesting their groceries and rent. This was his cliff-edge, his personal intersection of choice, standing there loose-faced in the kitchen, running his finger around a shiny pan with not one little crumb of biscuit left in it. He sat down on the kitchen tile with his scary eyes shut tight but still seeing his little girl's face. They'd ate some charity peanut butter on biscuits washed down with tapwater and a grimace. ~ David Foster Wallace

Our impatience of miles, when we are in a hurry; but it is still best that a mile should have seventeen hundred and sixty yards. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

When the act of reflection takes place in the mind, when we look at ourselves in the light of thought, we discover that our life is embosomed in beauty. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

In the morning a man walks with his whole body; in the evening, only with his legs. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Nobody can bring you peace but yourself. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

You cannot do a kindness too soon. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Of all the ways to lose a person, death is the kindest. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

A friend is the hope of the heart. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

One man thinks justice consists in paying debts, and has no measure in his abhorrence of another who is very remiss in this duty and makes the creditor wait tediously. But that second man has his own way of looking at things; asks himself Which debt must I pay first, the debt to the rich, or the debt to the poor? the debt of money or the debt of thought to mankind, of genius to nature? For you, O broker, there is not other principle but arithmetic. For me, commerce is of trivial import; love, faith, truth of character, the aspiration of man, these are sacred; ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

The days come and go but they say nothing, and if we do not use the gifts they bring, they carry them as silently away. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

A day is a miniature eternity. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

It is never too late to do right. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

The world of men show like a comedy without laughter: populations, interests, government, history; 't is all toy figures in a toyhouse. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

In excited conversation we have glimpses of the universe, hints of power native to the soul, far-darting lights and shadows of an Andes landscape, such as we can hardly attain in lone meditation. Here are oracles sometimes profusely given, to which the memory goes back in barren hours. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

One idea lights a thousand candles. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

This defining is philosophy. Philosophy is the account which the human mind gives to itself of the constitution of the world. Two cardinal facts lie forever at the base; the one, and the two. - 1. Unity, or Identity; and, 2. Variety. We unite all things by perceiving the law which pervades them; by perceiving the superficial differences and the profound resemblances. But every mental act, - this very perception of identity or oneness, recognizes the difference of things. Oneness and otherness. It is impossible to speak or to think without embracing both. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

A character is like an acrostic or Alexandrian stanza; - read it forward, backward, or across, it still spells the same thing. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Nature is the incarnation of thought. The world is the mind precipitated. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Let it suffice that in the light of these two facts, namely, that the mind is One, and that nature is its correlative, history isto be read and written. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

He who has acquired the ability, may wait securely the occasion of making it felt and appreciated, and know that it will not loiter. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Every novel is a debtor to Homer. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Nature magically suits a man to his fortunes, by making them the fruit of his character. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

The voyage of the best ship is a zigzag line of a hundred tacks. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

What goes on around you ... compares little with what goes on inside you. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

When the night is darkest, the stars come out. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Man is made of the same atoms the world is, he shares the same impressions, predispositions, and destiny. When his mind is illuminated, when his heart is kind, he throws himself joyfully into the sublime order, and does, with knowledge, what the stones do by structure. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

In art the hand can never execute anything higher than the heart can inspire. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

When nature removes a great man, people explore the horizon for a successor; but none comes, and none will. His class is extinguished with him. In some other and quite different field, the next man will appear. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

We seek our friend not sacredly, but with an adulterate passion which would appropriate him to ourselves. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

There is the illusion of time, which is very deep; who has disposed of it? Mor come to the conviction that what seems the succession of thought is only the distribution of wholes into causal series. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Honor and fortune exist for him who always recognizes the neighborhood of the great, always feels himself in the presence of high causes. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Wisdom will never let us stand with any man on an unfriendly footing. We refuse sympathy and intimacy with people, as if we waited for some better sympathy or intimacy to come. But whence and when: Tomorrow will be like today. Life wastes itself while we are preparing to live. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

It is easy to carp at colleges, and the college, if he will wait for it, will have its own turn. Genius exists there also, but will not answer a call of a committee of the House of Commons. It is rare, precious, eccentric, and darkling. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson