I am always violently in love with something--an idea, a person, a job.
- Ansel Adams in a letter to Nancy Newhall. July 15, 1944
The theoretician believes in logic and believes that he despises dreams, intuition, and poetry. He does not recognize that these three fairies have only disguised themselves in order to dazzle him.... He does not know that he owes his greatest discoveries to them.
- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Wartime Writings 1939-1944
R.W. Emerson
Society is always taken by surprise at any new example of common sense.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
The moment we exercise our affections, the earth is metamorphosed; there is no winter, and no night; all tragedies, all ennuis vanish; —all furies even.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Friendship,” Essays, 1844
Any relation to the land, the habit of tilling it, or mining it, or even hunting on it, generates the feeling of patriotism.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts; they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
Life is a festival only to the wise.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
"To laugh often and much,to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children...to leave the world a better place...to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.This is to have succeeded." -Ralph Waldo Emerson
''Speak what you think in hard words, and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, thoug it contradict everything you said today'' (Self-Reliance Essay)
"Within these plantations of God, a decorum and sanctity reign, a perennial festival is dressed, and the guest sees not how he should tire of them in a thousand years. In the woods we return to reason and faith. There I feel that nothing can befal me in life,-no disgrace, no calamity, (leaving me my eyes,) which nature cannot repair. Standing on the bare ground,-my head bathed by the blithe air, and uplifted into infinite space,-all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eyeball. I am nothing I see all. The currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or particle of God." Ralph Waldo Emerson nature, ch.I
I hope in these days we have heard the last of conformity and consistency. Let the words be gazetted and ridiculous henceforward. Instead of the gong for dinner, let us hear a whistle from the Spartan fife.-Emerson
"Society is always taken by surprise at any new example of common sense".
To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment..''
Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.
"the louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons"
"In the uttermost meaning of the words, thought is devout, and devotion is thought. Deep calls unto deep."
"To laugh often and much,to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children...to leave the world a better place...to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.This is to have succeeded." -Ralph Waldo Emerson
''Speak what you think in hard words, and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, thoug it contradict everything you said today'' (Self-Reliance Essay)
"It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion ; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of a crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude."-Emerson
"The years teach much which the days never knew"
'We but half-express ourselves and are ashamed of that divine idea which each of us represents... but God will not have his work made manifest by cowards.''
''In every work of a genius we discover our own neglected thoughts''
''Cast the bantling on the rocks/suckle him with the she-wolfs teat/wintered with the Hawk and Fox/power and speed be hands and feet.''-introductory poem ,quoted by Emerson in Self-Reliance.
"To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children...to leave the world a better place...to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded."
... Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you." RWE
For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness."
"do your work and I shall know you. Do you work and you shall reinforce yourself"
"Every great and commanding moment in the annals of the world is the triumph of some enthusiasm."
"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; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till."
- from "Self-Reliance"
"It is not length of life, but depth of life"
"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us"
"There are three wants which can never be satisfied: that of the rich, who want something more; that of the sick, who want something different; and that of the traveler, who says, Anywhere but here."
"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."
"All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better."
What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same courage that a soldier needs. Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men and women to win them."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
“It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinions; it is easy in solitude to live after your own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude”
Treat a man as he is, and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he could be, and he will become what he should be.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson
What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe your critics are right.
Prayer is contemplation on the issues of life from the highest point of view.
“Once You Make A Decision, The Universe Conspires To Make It Happen.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson.
. "The only reward of virtue is virtue; the only way to have a friend is to be one." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better."
"To laugh often and much,to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children...to leave the world a better place...to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.This is to have succeeded." -Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Within these plantations of God, a decorum and sanctity reign, a perennial festival is dressed, and the guest sees not how he should tire of them in a thousand years. In the woods we return to reason and faith. There I feel that nothing can befal me in life,-no disgrace, no calamity, (leaving me my eyes,) which nature cannot repair. Standing on the bare ground,-my head bathed by the blithe air, and uplifted into infinite space,-all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eyeball. I am nothing I see all. The currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or particle of God." Ralph Waldo Emerson nature, ch.I
Ralph Waldo Emerson was born in Boston on May 25, 1803. He was born to a Unitarian minister, Reverend William Emerson (1769-1811), and Ruth Haskins Emerson (1768-1853). His family did not believe in a Calvinistic inherited evil, the loss of free will, or interminable atonement, and these beliefs reflected on Emerson himself. He prevailed in poetry, essays, and philosophy. He preached a gospel of individualism. In 1821, he graduated from Harvard at the age of eighteen, and became a minister in 1828. When he was twenty-six he married a seventeen-year-old, Ellen Louisa Tucker, a devoted proselyte. A short seventeen months later, Ellen died from tuberculosis. Because of this, and because of a few religious problems, Emerson resigned from his pastorate and left for Europe. He traveled to Italy, France, England and Scotland and formulated many of his self-reliance, "Nature" ideas. While in Europe he also befriended Carlyle, Coleridge, and Wordsworth. In 1833 he returned to the United States. Newly inspired, he gave his first lecture "The Uses of Natural History" at the Masonic Temple in Boston. In the next year he settled in Concord, Massachusetts. "Nature" and next set of his lectures were written there. His brother Edward also died in this same year of an unexpected death. In 1835 he lectured on "Biography" from January through March. He also met Bronson Alcott and marries Lydian Jackson. His next series of lectures were on "English Literature" were given in November through January during the next year. He also helped form the Transcendental Club a few months prior to this. In 1837 Emerson gave "The American Scholar" address at Harvard to seniors, one of whom was Henry David Thoreau. Emerson then wrote "The Concord Hymn." During the next year, he gave "Divinity School Address" at Harvard. He then continued on to deliver "Literary Ethics" lecture at Dartmouth as well as "The Present Age" in 1839. From the year 1840 to 1844 Emerson wrote for "The Dial" with Margaret Fuller as editor and the first issue came out on July 1, 1840. "Essays" was published in 1841 which included "Self-Reliance", The Over-Soul", and others. Thoreau moved into Emerson's home for a two-year stay, and became a household handyman, and a father figure when Emerson was on a lecture tour. In 1842 he gave lectures in New York and met Henry James. Shortly afterwards he assumed the editorship of "The Dial." In the following year, he delivered the lecture series "New England" in Baltimore, New York, Philadelphia, and Newark. Two years later, Emerson's "Essays: Second Series" was published and sold well. And in the same year, he delivered the address "Emancipation in the British West Indies", which was his first public statement against slavery. For the next couple of years until 1846, he gave his lecture series "Representative Men". His poems were also published in this year. From 1847-1848, he went on his second trip to England and France, British which was a lecture tour. After returning in 1851, he spoke on the Fugitive Slave Law. In the next year he also spoke on this subject and went on a western lecture tour. In 1854 he lectured on poetry at Harvard Divinity School and meets Walt Whitman in New York City. In 1856, "English Traits" is published. Four years later, "The Conduct of Life" is also published. Emerson met Abraham Lincoln in 1862. And in this same year, Henry David Thoreau dies and Emerson gave a funeral oration. In the year prior, Emerson hailed Lincoln's "Emancipation Proclamation" with "Boston Hymn". Emerson was given honorary doctorate at Harvard College shortly afterwards. In the next year, "May-Day and Other Pieces" were published and he was elected Harvard "Overseer". In 1870, "Society and Solitude" was published and he launched the lecture series "The Natural History of the Intellect". Next, he went on a trip to California, and met with famed naturalist John Muir. And after his return, he gave his second Harvard lecture series. 1872-73 he took his third trip to Europe. After returning, "Parnassus" was published. In 1875, "Letters and Social Aims" was published. A year later, he lectured at the University of Virginia. And in 1882 Emerson died in Concord on April 27, at the age 78 and was buried in Sleepy Hollow.
Quotations “It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinions; it is easy in solitude to live after your own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude”
Quotations "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor safety." ~Benjamin Franklin
"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." ~Jesus
"When it's dark out, you can see the stars." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
"The child plucks its first flower with an insight into its beauty and significance which the subsequent botanist never retains." ~Henry David Thoreau
"I do not wish to treat friendships daintily, but with roughest courage. When they are real, they are not glass threads or frost-work, but the solidest thing we know." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
"As no man had ever a point of pride that was not injurious to him, so no man had ever a defect that was not somewhere made useful to him. The stag in the fable admired his horns and blamed his feet, but when the hunter came, his feet saved him, and afterwards, caught in the thicket, his horns destroyed him." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Those who imagine they look upon nature with the most objective of eyes are those whose subjective beliefs blind them most of all, for they cannot see through their own misinterpretations." ~Seth
"Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid." ~Albert Einstein
"The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, worry about the future, or anticipate trouble, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly" ~Buddha
"As a man who has devoted his whole life to the most clear headed science, to the study of matter, I can tell you as a result of my research about atoms this much: There is no matter as such. All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force which brings the particle of an atom to vibration and holds this most minute solar system of the atom together. We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent mind. This mind is the matrix of all matter." ~Max Planck
"When Freedom Is outlawed, only Outlaws are free!!!" ~Alex Jones
