Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.
— Self-Reliance
Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He set out its ideas in his 1836 essay Nature, and his 1837 speech "The American Scholar" was hailed as America's intellectual Declaration of Independence.
He wrote most of his essays first as lectures. The two collections of the 1840s, including "Self-Reliance" and "The Over-Soul", hold the core of his thinking: trust in the individual, freedom, and the link between the soul and the world. Nietzsche admired him, Walt Whitman called him his master, and he was a mentor and close friend to Henry David Thoreau.
He wrote most of his essays first as lectures. The two collections of the 1840s, including "Self-Reliance" and "The Over-Soul", hold the core of his thinking: trust in the individual, freedom, and the link between the soul and the world. Nietzsche admired him, Walt Whitman called him his master, and he was a mentor and close friend to Henry David Thoreau.
In the presence of nature, a wild delight runs through the man, in spite of real sorrows. Nature says, -- he is my creature, and maugre all his impertinent griefs, he shall be glad with me
— Nature
Why all this deference to Alfred, and Scanderbeg, and Gustavus? Suppose they were virtuous; did they wear out virtue?
— Essays: First Series
The picture waits for my verdict; it is not to command me, but I am to settle its claim to praise.
— Self-Reliance
A man's power to connect his thought with its proper symbol, and so to utter it, depends on the simplicity of his character, that is, upon his love of truth, and his desire to communicate it without loss.
— Nature
I know too well how slowly we edge along sideways to every thing good & brilliant in our lives & how casually and unobservedly we make all our most valued acquaintances.
— The Selected Letters Of Ralph Waldo Emerson
Give me health and a day, and I will make the pomp of emperors ridiculous.
— Nature
As long as all that is said is said against me, I feel a certain sublime assurance of success, but as soon as honied words of praise are spoken for me, I feel as one that lies unprotected before his enemies.
— Journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1820-1824
Even in the mud and scum of things, something always, always sings.
We do not know today whether we are busy or idle. In times when we thought ourselves indolent we have discovered afterward that much was accomplished and much was begun in us.
A great man is always willing to be little.
Yes, but does Maine have anything to SAY to Florida?
It is time to be old To take in sail.
For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind.
The key to every man is his thought. Sturdy and defying though he look, he has a helm which he obeys, which is the idea after which all his facts are classified. He can only be reformed by showing him a new idea which commands his own.