a good reader makes a good book Author: Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Quote More from Ralph Waldo Emerson “I appeal from your customs. I must be myself. I cannot break myself any longer …” “Even in the mud and scum of things, something always, always sings.” “For the existing world is not a dream, and cannot with impunity be treated as a…” “No great man ever complains of want of opportunity.”