Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist. With his extraordinary gift as a writer, lecturer and a poet that extends well into our modern age, he was seen as a champion of individualism and according to Wikipedia, was a "prescient critic of countervailing pressures of society."

He wrote on a number of subjects and published his landmark essay Nature in 1836. He went on to publish the book Essays that included his famous essay called Self Reliance, which beyond a shadow of a doubt isfull of wisdom and timeless essay quotes.

So today we bring you some of the best quotes from Ralph Waldo Emerson that we are certain you will fall in love with.

1. "Dare to live the life you have dreamed for yourself. Go forward and make your dreams come true." – Ralph Waldo Emerson

2. "To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment." – Ralph Waldo Emerson

3. "What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." – Ralph Waldo Emerson

4. "Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." – Ralph Waldo Emerson

5. "The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and you have lived well." – Ralph Waldo Emerson

6. "Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising up every time we fail." – Ralph Waldo Emerson

7. "It is not the length of life, but the depth." – Ralph Waldo Emerson

8. "Write it on your heart that everyday is the best day in the year." – Ralph Waldo Emerson

9. "It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude." – Ralph Waldo Emerson

10. ″Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind." – Ralph Waldo Emerson

11. "Cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously. And because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude." – Ralph Waldo Emerson

12. "Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen." – Ralph Waldo Emerson

13. "Make the most of yourself…for that is all there is of you." – Ralph Waldo Emerson

14. "Without ambition one starts nothing. Without work one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you, you have to win it." – Ralph Waldo Emerson17."Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm." – Ralph Waldo Emerson

15. "Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet." – Ralph Waldo Emerson

16. "If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he reads." – Ralph Waldo Emerson

17. "Be not the slave of your own past – plunge into the sublime seas, dive deep, and swim far, so you shall come back with new self-respect, with new power, and with an advanced experience that shall explain and overlook the old." – Ralph Waldo Emerson

18. "Don't be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better." – Ralph Waldo Emerson

19. "The only way to have a friend is to be one." – Ralph Waldo Emerson

20. "Most of the shadows of this life are caused by standing in one's own sunshine." – Ralph Waldo Emerson