Ralph Waldo Emerson: Essays and Lectures. Book One (6).

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:

“…the beauty of things, which becomes a new, and higher beauty when expressed.” P. 452. ………. “But the quality of the imagination is to flow, and not to freeze.” P. 463 ……….. “In times when we thought ourselves indolent, we have afterwards discovered, that much was accomplished and much was begun in us.” P. 471. ………. “Life is a train of moods…and, as we pass through them, they prove to be many-colored lenses which paint the world their own hue, and each shows only what lies in its focus.” P. 473. ………. “Nature, as we know her, is no saint.” P. 481. ………. “…and the true romance…will be the transformation of genius into practical power.” P. 492. ………. “…such men are often solitary, or if they chance to be social, do not need society, but can entertain themselves very well alone.” P. 495. ………. “…and if the people should destroy class after class, until two men only were left, one of these would be the leader, and would be involuntarily served and copied by the other.” P. 518. ………. “He is a good man who can receive a gift well.” ………. “There are days which occur in this climate, at almost any season of the year, wherein the world reaches its perfection…when everything that has life gives sign of satisfaction, and the cattle that lie on the ground seem to have great and tranquil thoughts.” P. 541. ………. “All promise outruns the performance.” P. 552. ………. “Every end is prospective of some other end, which is also temporary; a round and final success nowhere.” P. 552.

End of Book One.

Ralph Waldo Emerson: Essays and Lectures. Book One (5).

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

Why read it? Emerson’s unit of thought is the epigrammatic sentences. 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:

“There are degrees in idealism.” p. 407. ……….. “Conversation is a game of circles.” p. 408. ………. “We can never see Christianity from the Catechism—from the pastures, from a boat in the pond, from amidst the songs of wood-birds, we possibly may.” p. 409. ………. “One man’s justice is another man’s injustice; one man’s beauty, another’s ugliness; one man’s wisdom, another’s folly….” p. 410. ……….”Thus there is no sleep, no pause, no preservation, but all things renew, germinate, and spring.” p. 412. ………. “Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.” p. 414. ………. “Life is a series of surprises.” p. 413. ………. Oliver Cromwell: “A man never rises so high as when he knows not where he is going.” p. 414. ………. “….the wisest doctor is graveled [confused, perplexed] by the inquisitiveness of a child.” p. 417. ………. “You have first an instinct, then an opinion, then a knowledge, as the plant has root, bud and fruit.” p. 419. ………. “God offers to every mind its choice between truth and repose.” p. 425. ………. “Thus, historically viewed, it as been the office of art to educate the perception of beauty.” p. 432.

To be continued.

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.

Ralph Waldo Emerson: Essays and Lectures. Book One (3)

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

Why read it? Emerson’s unit of thought is the epigrammatic sentences. 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:

“…that ancient doctrine of Nemesis, who keeps watch in the universe, and lets no offense go unchastised.” p. 292. ………. “…the proverbs of all nations, which are always the literature of reason, or the statements of an absolute truth, without qualification.” p. 293. ………. “…if you put a chain around the neck of a slave, the other fastens itself around your own.” p. 293……….. “You cannot do wrong without suffering wrong.” p. 294. ………. “our strength grows out of our weakness.” p. 298. ………. “Thus do all things preach the indifferency of circumstances..” p. 299. ………. “Nothing seems so easy as to speak and to be understood.” p. 312. ………. “If a teacher have any opinion which he wishes to conceal, his pupils will become as fully indoctrinated into that as into any which he publishes.” p. 313. ………. “No man can learn what he has not preparation for learning, however near to his eyes is the object.” p. 313. ………. “Our eyes are holden that we cannot see things that stare us in the face, until the hour arrives when the mind is ripened; then we behold them, and the time when we saw them not is like a dream.” p. 313. ………. “Take the book into your two hands, and read your eyes out; you will never find what I find.” p. 314. ………. “The man may teach by doing, and not otherwise.” p. 316.

To be continued.

Ralph Waldo Emerson: Essays and Lectures. Book One (2)

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

Why read it? Emerson’s unit of thought is the epigrammatic sentences. 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:

“…remarks that there is no crime but has sometimes been a virtue.” p. 197. ……….. “The student is to read history actively and not passively; to esteem his own life the text, and books the commentary.” p. 239. ………. “…there is properly no history, only biography.” p. 240. ………. “A painter told me that nobody could draw a tree without in some sort becoming a tree…” p. 244. ………. “There is at the surface [of history] infinite variety of things; at the center there is simplicity of cause.” p. 242. ………. “…all public facts are to be individualized, all private facts are to be generalized.” p. 246. ………. “Man is his own star.” p. 257. ………. “There is a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction…that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion…. p. 259. ………. “The power that resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried.” p. 259. ………. “Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist.” p. 261. ………. “He who would gather immortal palms must not be hindered by the name of goodness, but must explore if it be goodness.” p. 261. ………. “What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think.” p. 263. ……….. “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.” p. 265. ………. “Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh; to be great is to be misunderstood.” p. 265. ………. “Man is timid and apologetic; he is no longer upright; he dares not say ‘I think’…but quotes some saint or sage.” p. 270. ………. “Traveling is a fool’s paradise.” p. 278.

To be continued.

Ralph Waldo Emerson: Essays and Lectures, Book One. (1)

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

Why read it? Emerson’s unit of thought is the epigrammatic sentences. 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:

“Where there is no vision, the people perish.” p. 115. ……….. “Whilst the multitude of men degrade each other, and give currency to desponding doctrines, the scholar must be a bringer of hope and must reinforce man against himself.” p. 116. ………. “To questions of this sort, nature replies, ‘I grow.’ ” p. 121. ………. “When nature has work to be done, she creates a genius to do it.” p. 123. ………. “Has anything been done?... Who did it? … plainly not any man, but all men: it was the prevalence and inundation of an idea.” p. 129. ………. “That man shall be learned who reduceth his learning to practice.” p. 131. ………. “…the whole interest of history lies in the fortunes of the poor.” p. 141. ………. “Every great and commanding moment in the annals of the world is the triumph of some enthusiasm.” p. 147. ………. “…it is not that men do not wish to act; they pine to be employed, but are paralyzed by the uncertainty what they should do.” p. 165. ………. “The two parties which divide the state, the party of conservatism and that of innovation, are very old, and have disputed the possession of the world ever since it was made.” p. 173. ………. “He [the radical] legislates for man as he ought to be…but he makes no allowance for friction…. p. 185. ………. “It will never make any difference to a hero what the laws are.”

To be continued.