A Man Is What He Thinks About All Day Long Ralph Waldo Emerson
A man is what he thinks about all day long. | Ralph Waldo Emerson Continue reading A Man Is What He Thinks About All Day Long Ralph Waldo Emerson
an online book by David Gurteen
Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803 – April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, minister, abolitionist, and poet who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champion of individualism and critical thinking, as well as a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society and conformity. Friedrich Nietzsche thought he was "the most gifted of the Americans," and Walt Whitman called Emerson his "master".
Emerson gradually moved away from the religious and social beliefs of his contemporaries, formulating and expressing the philosophy of Transcendentalism in his 1836 essay, "Nature". His speech "The American Scholar," given in 1837, was called America's "intellectual Declaration of Independence" by Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
Emerson wrote most of his important essays as lectures and then revised them for print. His first two collections of essays, Essays: First Series (1841) and Essays: Second Series (1844), represent the core of his thinking. They include the well-known essays "Self-Reliance", "The Over-Soul," "Circles," "The Poet," and "Experience". Together with "Nature", these essays made the decade from the mid-1830s to the mid-1840s Emerson's most fertile period. Emerson wrote on a number of subjects, never espousing fixed philosophical tenets. He instead developed ideas such as individuality, freedom, the ability for mankind to realize almost anything, and the relationship between the soul and the surrounding world. Emerson's "nature" was more philosophical than naturalistic: "Philosophically considered, the universe is composed of Nature and the Soul." Emerson is one of several figures who "took a more pantheist or pandeist approach, by rejecting views of God as separate from the world".
He remains among the linchpins of the American romantic movement, and his work has greatly influenced the thinkers, writers, and poets that followed him. "In all my lectures," he wrote, "I have taught one doctrine, namely, the infinitude of the private man." Emerson is also well-known as a mentor and friend of Henry David Thoreau, a fellow Transcendentalist.
Credit: Wikipedia - Ralph_Waldo_EmersonA man is what he thinks about all day long. | Ralph Waldo Emerson Continue reading A Man Is What He Thinks About All Day Long Ralph Waldo Emerson
In excited conversation we have glimpses of the universe, hints of power native to the soul, far-darting lights and shadows of an Andes landscape, such as we can hardly attain in lone meditation. Here are oracles sometimes profusely given, to which the memory goes back in barren hours. Credit: Ralph Waldo Emerson Source: The Conduct … Continue reading Excited Conversation Ralph Waldo Emerson
Let the bird sing without deciphering the song. Credit: Ralph Waldo Emerson Tags: Ralph Waldo Emerson (4)Google Web Search Photo Credits: Pixabay (Pixabay)This quotation is part of a blook on Conversational Leadership. It is one of many quotations that have influenced my thinking on the subject. Parts of this blook have restricted access. You may browse … Continue reading Let the Bird Sing Ralph Waldo Emerson
We are shut up in schools and college recitation rooms for ten or fifteen years, and come out at last with a bellyful of words and do not know a thing. Credit: Ralph Waldo Emerson Books: Ralph Waldo EmersonA Man Is What He Thinks About All Day Long Ralph Waldo EmersonShut Up in Schools Ralph … Continue reading Shut Up in Schools Ralph Waldo Emerson