The whole of what we know is a system of compensations. Each suffering is rewarded; each sacrifice is made up; every debt is paid.
Source: In Webster's Electronic Quotebase, ed. Keith Mohler, 1994.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson, (May 25 1803-1882), US philosopher, poet, essayist; He was the main spokesman of his time for moral optimism and belief in the individual: Self-Reliance, 1844.