Ralph Waldo Emerson was an essayist and lecturer, a poet-philosopher, and an activist abolitionist. He also led the transcendentalist movement — a philosophical movement that gained traction along the East Coast of the United States in the 1820s. The core of transcendentalism is a belief in the inherent goodness of people and, even more importantly, of nature; further, transcendentalists believed in self-reliance, intuition, and divinity in everyday life. “Nature,” which Emerson published in 1836, was a foundational and informational essay espousing the tenets of his philosophical and spiritual movement. This quote — a celebration of the natural order — is a reminder that time heals all wounds, but it takes wisdom and patience to get there.