1. Ralph Waldo Emerson - A Quote Study

2. Emerson as the American Transcendental Sage To understand Emerson is to understand Transcendentalism. 1.Often compared to the great Victorian sages of England; Carlyle, Arnold, Ruskin, his ideas were as revolutionary as theirs, particularly his emphasis on the value of the individual. 2.Often regarded as the “great duo” with Thoreau, he is an American original, especially in his definitions of nature and the self. 3.His ideas, though often abstract, could be interpreted and applied in many different ways by others: abolition, women’s right, educational reform.

3. Emerson as the American Transcendental Sage 4. His thoughts are never a unified system, but rather a series of linked reflections that produced a wide- ranging “transcendental” philosophy. 5. He offered belief in personal divinity that resides in every human being and a version of nature that links all to the wider world.

4. Core Beliefs of Transcendentalism 1.Finding its root in the word “transcend,” Transcendentalists believed individuals could transcend to a higher being of existence in nature. By contemplating objects in nature, people can transcend the world and discover union with the Over-Soul (also known as the Ideal or Supreme Mind) that unites us all. “…the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me, I am part or parcel of God.” "The whole of Nature is a metaphor of the human mind…” "The relation between the mind and matter is not fancied by some poets, but stands in the will of God, and so is free to be known by all men.” --from Nature

5. Core Beliefs of Transcendentalism 2. God is located in the soul of each individual. There's a direct connection or "correspondence" between the universe and the individual soul. “The first in time and the first in importance of the influences upon the mind is that of nature. Every day, the sun; and, after sunset, night and her stars. Ever the winds blow; ever the grass grows. Every day, men and women, conversing, beholding and beholden. “ -- from “The Divinity Address”

6. Core Beliefs of Transcendentalism “…meantime, whilst the doors of the temple stand open, night and day, before every man, and the oracles of this truth cease never, it is guarded by one stem condition; this, namely; it is an intuition. It cannot be received at second hand. Truly speaking, it is not instruction, but provocation, that I can receive from another soul. What he announces, I must find true in me, or wholly reject; and on his word, or as his second, be he who he may, I can accept nothing.” -- from “The Divinity Address”

7. Core Beliefs of Transcendentalism 3. Humanity’s potential is limitless. Follow your own intuition and own beliefs, however divergent from the social norm they may be. Since all people are inherently good, the individual's intuitive response to any given situation will be the right thing to do. "If the single man plant himself indomitably on his instincts, and there abide, the huge world will come round to him.“ "The whole of Nature is a metaphor of the human mind…” "The relation between the mind and matter is not fancied by some poets, but stands in the will of God, and so is free to be known by all men." -- from Nature

8. On individualism, independence of mind, and self-reliance "There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion” --from “Self-Reliance”

9. On Courage “It was a high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, “Always do what you are afraid to do”

10. On consistency A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds… With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall.

11. On being misunderstood Speak what you think now in hard words, and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradicts every thing you said today … Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.

12. On American Scholars’ Obligations for ages “Action is with the scholar subordinate, but it is essential. Without it, he is not yet man. Without it, thought can never ripen into truth. … Inaction is cowardice, but there can be no scholar without the heroic mind…” … There being his functions, it becomes him to feel all confidence in himself, and to defer never to the popular cry…”

13. Pride in Americanism "We have listened too long to the courtly muses of Europe We will walk on our own feet, we will work with our own hands, we will speak our own minds.“ --from “The American Scholar”