Ralph Waldo Emerson: Essays and Lectures. Book One (4).

1803 -1882. New York: Literary Classics of the United States. 1983.

Why read it? Emerson’s unit of thought is the epigrammatic sentence. Emerson writes a poetic prose. Emerson’s beliefs—that each man shares in the Over-Soul, or God, that man possesses, within himself, the means to all knowledge—expressed in his memorable sentences, are of central importance in the history of American culture. The only trouble is most of his ideas are half-truths.

Ideas:

“He that writes to himself writes to an eternal public.” p. 316. ………. “That statement only is fit to be made public, which you have come at in attempting to satisfy your own curiosity.” p. 316. ………. “The lesson which these observations convey is, Be and not seem.” p. 320. ………. “I do then with my friends as I do with my books: I would have them where I can find them but I seldom use them.” p. 353. ……….. “So in regard to disagreeable and formidable things, prudence does not consist in evasion, or in flight, but in courage.” p. 365. ………. “Life wastes itself while we are preparing to live.” p. 367. ………. “The hero is not fed on sweets./ Daily his own heart he eats.” p. 369. ………. “The characteristic of heroism is its persistency.” p. 379. ………. “Some thoughts always find us young, and keep us so.” p. 388. ………. “The faith that stands on authority is not faith.” p. 399. ………. “…every action admits of being outdone.” p. 403. ………. “…there is no end in nature, but every end is a beginning.” p. 403. ………. “The life of a man is a self-evolving circle, which, from a ring imperceptibly small, rushes on all sides outwards to new and  larger circles and that without end.” p. 404. ………. “Every ultimate fact is only the first of a new series.” p. 405. ………. “Men cease to interest us when we find their limitations.” p. 406.

To be continued.