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The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson
Introduction by Mary Oliver
Commentary by Henry James, Robert Frost, Matthew Arnold, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and Henry David Thoreau
The definitive collection of Emerson’s major speeches, essays, and poetry, The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson chronicles the life’s work of a true “American Scholar.” As one of the architects of the transcendentalist movement, Emerson embraced a philosophy that championed the individual, emphasized independent thought, and prized “the splendid labyrinth of one’s own perceptions.” More than any writer of his time, he forged a style distinct from his European predecessors and embodied and defined what it meant to be an American. Matthew Arnold called Emerson’s essays “the most important work done in prose.”
INCLUDES A MODERN LIBRARY READING GROUP GUIDE
Commentary by Henry James, Robert Frost, Matthew Arnold, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and Henry David Thoreau
The definitive collection of Emerson’s major speeches, essays, and poetry, The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson chronicles the life’s work of a true “American Scholar.” As one of the architects of the transcendentalist movement, Emerson embraced a philosophy that championed the individual, emphasized independent thought, and prized “the splendid labyrinth of one’s own perceptions.” More than any writer of his time, he forged a style distinct from his European predecessors and embodied and defined what it meant to be an American. Matthew Arnold called Emerson’s essays “the most important work done in prose.”
INCLUDES A MODERN LIBRARY READING GROUP GUIDE
880 pages, Paperback
First published November 15, 1983
About the author
Ralph Waldo Emerson
3,101 books5,022 followersRalph Waldo Emerson was born in Boston in 1803. Educated at Harvard and the Cambridge Divinity School, he became a Unitarian minister in 1826 at the Second Church Unitarian. The congregation, with Christian overtones, issued communion, something Emerson refused to do. "Really, it is beyond my comprehension," Emerson once said, when asked by a seminary professor whether he believed in God. (Quoted in 2,000 Years of Freethought edited by Jim Haught.) By 1832, after the untimely death of his first wife, Emerson cut loose from Unitarianism. During a year-long trip to Europe, Emerson became acquainted with such intelligentsia as British writer Thomas Carlyle, and poets Wordsworth and Coleridge. He returned to the United States in 1833, to a life as poet, writer and lecturer. Emerson inspired Transcendentalism, although never adopting the label himself. He rejected traditional ideas of deity in favor of an "Over-Soul" or "Form of Good," ideas which were considered highly heretical. His books include Nature (1836), The American Scholar (1837), Divinity School Address (1838), Essays, 2 vol. (1841, 1844), Nature, Addresses and Lectures (1849), and three volumes of poetry. Margaret Fuller became one of his "disciples," as did Henry David Thoreau.
The best of Emerson's rather wordy writing survives as epigrams, such as the famous: "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines." Other one- (and two-) liners include: "As men's prayers are a disease of the will, so are their creeds a disease of the intellect" (Self-Reliance, 1841). "The most tedious of all discourses are on the subject of the Supreme Being" (Journal, 1836). "The word miracle, as pronounced by Christian churches, gives a false impression; it is a monster. It is not one with the blowing clover and the falling rain" (Address to Harvard Divinity College, July 15, 1838). He demolished the right wing hypocrites of his era in his essay "Worship": ". . . the louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons" (Conduct of Life, 1860). "I hate this shallow Americanism which hopes to get rich by credit, to get knowledge by raps on midnight tables, to learn the economy of the mind by phrenology, or skill without study, or mastery without apprenticeship" (Self-Reliance). "The first and last lesson of religion is, 'The things that are seen are temporal; the things that are not seen are eternal.' It puts an affront upon nature" (English Traits , 1856). "The god of the cannibals will be a cannibal, of the crusaders a crusader, and of the merchants a merchant." (Civilization, 1862). He influenced generations of Americans, from his friend Henry David Thoreau to John Dewey, and in Europe, Friedrich Nietzsche, who takes up such Emersonian themes as power, fate, the uses of poetry and history, and the critique of Christianity. D. 1882.
Ralph Waldo Emerson was his son and Waldo Emerson Forbes, his grandson.
The best of Emerson's rather wordy writing survives as epigrams, such as the famous: "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines." Other one- (and two-) liners include: "As men's prayers are a disease of the will, so are their creeds a disease of the intellect" (Self-Reliance, 1841). "The most tedious of all discourses are on the subject of the Supreme Being" (Journal, 1836). "The word miracle, as pronounced by Christian churches, gives a false impression; it is a monster. It is not one with the blowing clover and the falling rain" (Address to Harvard Divinity College, July 15, 1838). He demolished the right wing hypocrites of his era in his essay "Worship": ". . . the louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons" (Conduct of Life, 1860). "I hate this shallow Americanism which hopes to get rich by credit, to get knowledge by raps on midnight tables, to learn the economy of the mind by phrenology, or skill without study, or mastery without apprenticeship" (Self-Reliance). "The first and last lesson of religion is, 'The things that are seen are temporal; the things that are not seen are eternal.' It puts an affront upon nature" (English Traits , 1856). "The god of the cannibals will be a cannibal, of the crusaders a crusader, and of the merchants a merchant." (Civilization, 1862). He influenced generations of Americans, from his friend Henry David Thoreau to John Dewey, and in Europe, Friedrich Nietzsche, who takes up such Emersonian themes as power, fate, the uses of poetry and history, and the critique of Christianity. D. 1882.
Ralph Waldo Emerson was his son and Waldo Emerson Forbes, his grandson.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 165 reviews
February 7, 2008
BEAUTIFUL.
"Man is timid and apologetic; he is no longer upright; he dares not say 'I think,' 'I am,' but quotes some saint or sage. He is ashamed before the blade of grass or the blowing rose. These roses under my window make no reference to former roses or to better ones; they are for what they are; they exist with God to-day. There is no time to them. There is simply the rose; it is perfect in every moment of its existence. Before a leaf-bud has burst, its whole life acts; in the full-blown flower there is no more; in the leafless root there is no less. Its nature is satisfied, and it satisfies nature, in all moments alike. But man postpones or remembers; he does not live in the present, but with reverted eye laments the past, or, heedless of the riches that surround him, stands on tiptoe to foresee the future. He cannot be happy and strong until he too lives with nature in the present, above time."
-from the Essay on Self-Reliance
"Man is timid and apologetic; he is no longer upright; he dares not say 'I think,' 'I am,' but quotes some saint or sage. He is ashamed before the blade of grass or the blowing rose. These roses under my window make no reference to former roses or to better ones; they are for what they are; they exist with God to-day. There is no time to them. There is simply the rose; it is perfect in every moment of its existence. Before a leaf-bud has burst, its whole life acts; in the full-blown flower there is no more; in the leafless root there is no less. Its nature is satisfied, and it satisfies nature, in all moments alike. But man postpones or remembers; he does not live in the present, but with reverted eye laments the past, or, heedless of the riches that surround him, stands on tiptoe to foresee the future. He cannot be happy and strong until he too lives with nature in the present, above time."
-from the Essay on Self-Reliance
August 17, 2016
In reading Emerson it readily becomes apparent why it is that such as Nietzsche revered his essaying person, tapping as he does into that interior reserve of the individual spirit who—whether she be isolated in starlit reclusion or thronged by fellow beings in day aglow bustle—must grapple, at the last, with the fact that she is alone and in that solitariness must self-arm to face the enduring struggle of time-taut life. I don't always agree with Emerson (or Nietzsche, for that matter) but I love the manner in which he composes his interiorized, searching struggle upon the page, psychologist and sage, artist and explorer, endeavoring to balance the external with the internal, to come to bear—amidst Puritan pull and Idealist push—with that incandescent creative mind—exhaled by God or Cosmic Inflation—whose harnessed energy might allow one to transcend the mundane, the temporal, the material. Plus, he is blessed with just such a fantastic, almost onomatopoeic name: Ralph. Waldo. Emerson. I can repeat it softly in singsong without it ever losing its peculiar charm.
January 29, 2020
Πολύ σπουδαίο μυαλό, παρότι άγνωστος στην Ευρώπη. Ο πρώτος τόμος είναι αυτός που αξίζει περισσότερο.
January 26, 2010
Can anybody truly be done reading emerson?
March 2, 2022
I have been reading (parts) of this book for a long time. The part on nature was very good, transcendentalism was informative-I hadn't actually studied the transcendentalists before and had only passing knowledge about them. His views on the Fugitive Slave Act was brilliant. He takes sharp aim at Daniel Webster for selling out and being the deciding vote in the Senate. He also had views on John Brown that were quite amazing. I had expected that he would be favorable towards him but did not expect that he would go as far as he did in supporting him. I also enjoyed most of the poetry. This is a great resource book on the above topics.
November 9, 2007
Emerson is my favorite poet/philosopher, and this one volume contains all his writings you could ever need. I agree with Emerson wholeheartedly about 33% of the time, disagree with him vehemently about 33%, and can't decide whether I agree or not the rest of the time. But he's always compelling, even if I think he's dead wrong.
The greatest thing about Emerson is how quotable he is. There are dozens of great one-liners here. One of my favorites: "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines."
I have to admit I haven't read the whole thing, but it's not the type of book you have to read straight through. I pick it up from time to time when I'm between books and just read an essay or a poem. Always a delight.
The must-read essay for every American is "Self-Reliance." America's strain of rugged individualism starts right here with Emerson. He certainly goes too far with his philosophy of individualism when he shuns charitable giving, etc., but there's a certain attractiveness to the idea of total self-reliance. Read it, and decide the limits for yourself. Just be sure to read some Melville to counter-balance Emerson's excesses.
My personal favorite is the address to the Harvard Divinity School, where Emerson explodes the authoritarian bent of Christianity as it was then taught. Harvard, in all its openness, banned him from the school for the next forty years after the address. "Men have come to speak of the revelation as somewhat long ago given and done, as if God were dead. . . . [I]t is my duty to say to you that the need was never greater of new revelation than now." Pretty important words in 1838. No less important now. Emerson again goes too far in this address when he belittles Christ's mission. He's right, however, insofar as he emphasizes that Christ taught that every man has divine potential. Powerful stuff.
Other favorites: The Transcendentalist (you probably read it in high school), Nature, Gifts, and Politics.
It's a great book to have on your shelf.
The greatest thing about Emerson is how quotable he is. There are dozens of great one-liners here. One of my favorites: "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines."
I have to admit I haven't read the whole thing, but it's not the type of book you have to read straight through. I pick it up from time to time when I'm between books and just read an essay or a poem. Always a delight.
The must-read essay for every American is "Self-Reliance." America's strain of rugged individualism starts right here with Emerson. He certainly goes too far with his philosophy of individualism when he shuns charitable giving, etc., but there's a certain attractiveness to the idea of total self-reliance. Read it, and decide the limits for yourself. Just be sure to read some Melville to counter-balance Emerson's excesses.
My personal favorite is the address to the Harvard Divinity School, where Emerson explodes the authoritarian bent of Christianity as it was then taught. Harvard, in all its openness, banned him from the school for the next forty years after the address. "Men have come to speak of the revelation as somewhat long ago given and done, as if God were dead. . . . [I]t is my duty to say to you that the need was never greater of new revelation than now." Pretty important words in 1838. No less important now. Emerson again goes too far in this address when he belittles Christ's mission. He's right, however, insofar as he emphasizes that Christ taught that every man has divine potential. Powerful stuff.
Other favorites: The Transcendentalist (you probably read it in high school), Nature, Gifts, and Politics.
It's a great book to have on your shelf.
April 9, 2013
It’s hard to overstate what the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson have done to awaken me to beauty and truth. Emerson packs more wisdom in one sentence than most writers articulate in a lifetime. Mary Oliver, the best selling poet in America told me simply, “Emerson is all you need.”
Though Emerson writes on a myriad of topics, his thematic core is consistent: “All things are made of one hidden stuff.” “The world globes itself in a drop of dew.” “The heart and soul of all men being one, this bitterness of his and mine ceases; I am my brother and my brother is me.” Emerson believes that God has taken on a myriad of disguises, and we are all It, and so is the leaf, the stone, the grass, the mountain, and the cloud. Thus, he sees the sublime in the scripture, “Christ is all in all,” and deeply feels and communicates the interconnection and unity of all things. He also warns us of the insidious influence of society to rob us of our authenticity. And so, he says in Self Reliance, “Trust Thyself. Every heart vibrates to that iron string.”
Emerson is not an easy read, but he is worth it. Oh, man, is he worth it! (I’ve listed below some of my favorite essays to get you started. But there are more, many more to set the soul aflame…)
Though Emerson writes on a myriad of topics, his thematic core is consistent: “All things are made of one hidden stuff.” “The world globes itself in a drop of dew.” “The heart and soul of all men being one, this bitterness of his and mine ceases; I am my brother and my brother is me.” Emerson believes that God has taken on a myriad of disguises, and we are all It, and so is the leaf, the stone, the grass, the mountain, and the cloud. Thus, he sees the sublime in the scripture, “Christ is all in all,” and deeply feels and communicates the interconnection and unity of all things. He also warns us of the insidious influence of society to rob us of our authenticity. And so, he says in Self Reliance, “Trust Thyself. Every heart vibrates to that iron string.”
Emerson is not an easy read, but he is worth it. Oh, man, is he worth it! (I’ve listed below some of my favorite essays to get you started. But there are more, many more to set the soul aflame…)
November 10, 2021
** 4 stars **
Emerson wrote of Thomas Carlyle, "He is a very national figure, and would by no means bear transplantation" (837). The same can be said of Ralph Waldo Emerson. If you want to understand the ethos of the United States, then read Emerson. He truly is the quintessential American writer: optimistic, individualistic to a fault, charismatic and inspiring.
Henry James wrote that Emerson "had frequently an exquisite elegance," and you can see this everywhere in his writing. He is often poetic in his expressions, his insights are vivid and striking, and his language is rich and memorable. Emerson said of Montaigne, "Cut these words and they would bleed; they are vascular and alive." Emerson's words are equally as powerful.
If you want to read the best of Emerson, I would recommend "The American Scholar," "Self-Reliance," his 1854 address on the Fugitive Slave Law, and his eulogy for Henry David Thoreau (which got me teary-eyed).
I'm giving the whole collection 4 stars because I don't love all of the selections. I think there were better essays to include from Representative Men, other poems that could have been included, and honestly, I'd have left out English Traits, which is pretty boring aside from an 1833 visit with Wordsworth Emerson recounts in which Wordsworth basically predicts the American Civil War. Loved most of the first and second series essays, though.
Would recommend to all readers. Emerson can be dense, but he is worth the effort.
Emerson wrote of Thomas Carlyle, "He is a very national figure, and would by no means bear transplantation" (837). The same can be said of Ralph Waldo Emerson. If you want to understand the ethos of the United States, then read Emerson. He truly is the quintessential American writer: optimistic, individualistic to a fault, charismatic and inspiring.
Henry James wrote that Emerson "had frequently an exquisite elegance," and you can see this everywhere in his writing. He is often poetic in his expressions, his insights are vivid and striking, and his language is rich and memorable. Emerson said of Montaigne, "Cut these words and they would bleed; they are vascular and alive." Emerson's words are equally as powerful.
If you want to read the best of Emerson, I would recommend "The American Scholar," "Self-Reliance," his 1854 address on the Fugitive Slave Law, and his eulogy for Henry David Thoreau (which got me teary-eyed).
I'm giving the whole collection 4 stars because I don't love all of the selections. I think there were better essays to include from Representative Men, other poems that could have been included, and honestly, I'd have left out English Traits, which is pretty boring aside from an 1833 visit with Wordsworth Emerson recounts in which Wordsworth basically predicts the American Civil War. Loved most of the first and second series essays, though.
Would recommend to all readers. Emerson can be dense, but he is worth the effort.
January 30, 2020
I cannot say I have read this book in entirety. Emerson is more of a writer to take with you on life’s journey; you don’t so much as complete Emerson; rather you check in with him periodically along the way.
Mary Oliver wrote a superb introduction to him in this edition. Take a look at it before you start the journey with Emerson. If anyone ever found the essence of stopping and smelling the roses or coffee, it is Emerson.
Mary Oliver wrote a superb introduction to him in this edition. Take a look at it before you start the journey with Emerson. If anyone ever found the essence of stopping and smelling the roses or coffee, it is Emerson.
December 29, 2012
The answers to all of my questions about life can be found in the pages of this book. Love, friendship, nature, politics, ethics, and the complex challenges that make up human experience are all examined in a moving, beautiful, eloquent and fiercely intelligent way.
A cherished part of my library.
A cherished part of my library.
April 8, 2012
American philosopher and Harvard professor Stanley Cavell claims "Emerson and Thoreau... are the founding philosophers of America" and comparable to Plato. Before reading this I tackled Thoreau. Emerson was his mentor, and they were both considered part of the Transcendental circle in mid-Century America. I found Emerson less irritating than Thoreau, but less readable and challenging. By challenging I don't mean less difficult, but less thought-provoking. I think Emerson is harder to parse, to "get." From what I've read elsewhere even many of his contemporaries found Emerson impenetrable and at times even incoherent. Thoreau on the other hand is easily understandable--and often provocative. So even while I hated what Thoreau had to say in "Living Without Principle" or "A Plea for Captain John Brown" I was engaged and I could see how his thinking tied in with various schools of thought and movements and the history of the era. I seldom felt that way about Emerson. And most of the essays were originally lectures and it shows. I often felt "talked at" from a height in a way I didn't feel with Thoreau.
I got a sense of just how far apart we are in his essay "Transcendentalism" where he divides people into "Idealists" and "Materialists." He's definitely the first, and I'm definitely the second. I value being grounded in the senses and reason and science--I'm a fan of reality. I find nature more harsh and cruel than beautiful and pure. I'm not much interested in doctrinal issues in Christianity such as examined in "An Address to Harvard Divinity School" and "The Lord's Supper" or such spiritual essays as "The Over-Soul," which I found about as relevant to reality as a horoscope.
And for a quintessential American philosopher (not that Thoreau was much better in this) I couldn't help but note that Emerson pretty much ignores any American intellectuals such as Franklin, Paine, Hamilton, Madison, Jefferson et al to pretty much load up instead on classical allusions. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. called Emerson's address "The American Scholar" America's "Intellectual Declaration of Independence," but I couldn't see it in that essay. European thinkers alluded to in the article? Plato, Cicero, Chaucer, Bacon, Shakespeare, Marvell, Dryden, Locke, Pope, Swedenborg, Linnaeus, Johnson, Goldsmith, Cowper, Gibbon, Goethe, Burns, Cuvier, Wordsworth, Davy, and Carlyle. Americans? None. Admittedly in 1837 writers such as Poe, Longfellow, Melville and Hawthorne had yet to make their mark, but I can't for the life of me see anything in the address that has American roots and his philosophy in general obviously owes huge debts to Plato, Descartes and Kant. The density of classical and topical allusion made much of what he wrote about in these works obscure to me.
I also think there are some thinkers where you're just fine on your own--that they can be sophisticated yet accessible. Plato for one. Even Thoreau. With Emerson I did miss not reading this book as part of a college class or well-educated reading group. I suspect with Emerson that there was a lot that may have passed over my head. He's long-winded, rambling, pedantic and very abstract. That said, there was hardly one essay in the book where I didn't find insightful and striking passages in the essays. I suspect that one thing that made Emerson so difficult is so much insight and wisdom is so densely packed in that you hardly have time to take in one idea before another hits you. He was hard to absorb and I admit some essays I just skimmed over, but even the earlier ones that I determinedly tackled word for word I wouldn't say I understood completely. If I had to pick a favorite essay, it would be "Self-Reliance" with that famous passage about consistency being "the hobgoblin of little minds" and "Friendship" with just so many passages that stuck out to me ("A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere. Before him I may think aloud." "Better be a nettle in the side of your friend than his echo.")
I didn't care much for English Traits, his reflections on England after visiting there. There was a lot of talk of Englishmen as a race here--common to the time but still disconcerting, and a lot of unsourced data and abstract speculation, where I would have found more specifics of what in his visit led to his conclusions more valuable. As for the poetry included, I was underwhelmed, perhaps because I recently read poetry by John Donne, William Blake and John Keats and in comparison I found Emerson mediocre. So, bottom line, I think this collection is worth at least browsing through. I'm not likely to revisit any but a very few of the essays however.
I got a sense of just how far apart we are in his essay "Transcendentalism" where he divides people into "Idealists" and "Materialists." He's definitely the first, and I'm definitely the second. I value being grounded in the senses and reason and science--I'm a fan of reality. I find nature more harsh and cruel than beautiful and pure. I'm not much interested in doctrinal issues in Christianity such as examined in "An Address to Harvard Divinity School" and "The Lord's Supper" or such spiritual essays as "The Over-Soul," which I found about as relevant to reality as a horoscope.
And for a quintessential American philosopher (not that Thoreau was much better in this) I couldn't help but note that Emerson pretty much ignores any American intellectuals such as Franklin, Paine, Hamilton, Madison, Jefferson et al to pretty much load up instead on classical allusions. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. called Emerson's address "The American Scholar" America's "Intellectual Declaration of Independence," but I couldn't see it in that essay. European thinkers alluded to in the article? Plato, Cicero, Chaucer, Bacon, Shakespeare, Marvell, Dryden, Locke, Pope, Swedenborg, Linnaeus, Johnson, Goldsmith, Cowper, Gibbon, Goethe, Burns, Cuvier, Wordsworth, Davy, and Carlyle. Americans? None. Admittedly in 1837 writers such as Poe, Longfellow, Melville and Hawthorne had yet to make their mark, but I can't for the life of me see anything in the address that has American roots and his philosophy in general obviously owes huge debts to Plato, Descartes and Kant. The density of classical and topical allusion made much of what he wrote about in these works obscure to me.
I also think there are some thinkers where you're just fine on your own--that they can be sophisticated yet accessible. Plato for one. Even Thoreau. With Emerson I did miss not reading this book as part of a college class or well-educated reading group. I suspect with Emerson that there was a lot that may have passed over my head. He's long-winded, rambling, pedantic and very abstract. That said, there was hardly one essay in the book where I didn't find insightful and striking passages in the essays. I suspect that one thing that made Emerson so difficult is so much insight and wisdom is so densely packed in that you hardly have time to take in one idea before another hits you. He was hard to absorb and I admit some essays I just skimmed over, but even the earlier ones that I determinedly tackled word for word I wouldn't say I understood completely. If I had to pick a favorite essay, it would be "Self-Reliance" with that famous passage about consistency being "the hobgoblin of little minds" and "Friendship" with just so many passages that stuck out to me ("A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere. Before him I may think aloud." "Better be a nettle in the side of your friend than his echo.")
I didn't care much for English Traits, his reflections on England after visiting there. There was a lot of talk of Englishmen as a race here--common to the time but still disconcerting, and a lot of unsourced data and abstract speculation, where I would have found more specifics of what in his visit led to his conclusions more valuable. As for the poetry included, I was underwhelmed, perhaps because I recently read poetry by John Donne, William Blake and John Keats and in comparison I found Emerson mediocre. So, bottom line, I think this collection is worth at least browsing through. I'm not likely to revisit any but a very few of the essays however.
April 9, 2009
this is my jack off material. gorgeous language. "self-reliance" is life changing.
July 27, 2020
How do you rate Emerson with some number of stars? I think he’d have an essay to write about the whole concept.
October 6, 2021
“Nature arms each man with some faculty which enables him to do easily some feat impossible to any other, and thus makes him necessary to society. This native determination guides his labor and his spending. He wants an equipment of means and tools proper to his talent. And to save on this point were to neutralize the special strength and helpfulness of each mind. Do your work, respecting the excellence of the work, and not its acceptableness.”
As you can see,Mr. Emerson was a man of higher spiritual quality and not less an authentic one. Probably the first authentic thinker in America. Even the great philosopher Fredrick Nietzsche said of him In 1884, as, “a glorious, great nature, rich in soul and spirit” and pronounced Emerson to be, “the author who has been the richest in ideas in this century.”And commenting on a collection of Emerson’s essays, Nietzsche wrote: “Never have I felt so at home in a book, and in my home, as—I may not praise it, it is too close to me.” Both of them held higher the individual esteem more than any other philosopher. Only far away from the mediocrity of conformist society can an individual human being find his inner truth and destiny. And this enigma of courageous health in their writings made them unique and great.
In this whole collection of Emerson's writing i came across so many beautiful ideas and revelation. But most of all the vibrating energy of Emerson's writings made it worth. As it is a collection of his lifetime work,i couldn’t finish all the essays with equal attention and joy;some of them sounded unnecessary,so i thought it better to skip them. It is quite too difficult a task to read a book of essays almost a thousand of pages, though there are almost a hundred pages which are collection of his poems. But i would really love to go back to these unfinished essays. He wrote some short essays on Thoreau,Lincoln and Carlyle,and these i can read whenever i have free schedule, that's not the worry. But there are essays on English traits,which i am totally uninterested to read,because i found them irrelevant in this century. And that's okay with me.
So it was a great journey reading almost all of Emerson's work only in some days and visiting his own authentic natural world brought in my own world a fresh air of self reliance and inner faith.
My love and respect to Ralph Waldo Emerson.
As you can see,Mr. Emerson was a man of higher spiritual quality and not less an authentic one. Probably the first authentic thinker in America. Even the great philosopher Fredrick Nietzsche said of him In 1884, as, “a glorious, great nature, rich in soul and spirit” and pronounced Emerson to be, “the author who has been the richest in ideas in this century.”And commenting on a collection of Emerson’s essays, Nietzsche wrote: “Never have I felt so at home in a book, and in my home, as—I may not praise it, it is too close to me.” Both of them held higher the individual esteem more than any other philosopher. Only far away from the mediocrity of conformist society can an individual human being find his inner truth and destiny. And this enigma of courageous health in their writings made them unique and great.
In this whole collection of Emerson's writing i came across so many beautiful ideas and revelation. But most of all the vibrating energy of Emerson's writings made it worth. As it is a collection of his lifetime work,i couldn’t finish all the essays with equal attention and joy;some of them sounded unnecessary,so i thought it better to skip them. It is quite too difficult a task to read a book of essays almost a thousand of pages, though there are almost a hundred pages which are collection of his poems. But i would really love to go back to these unfinished essays. He wrote some short essays on Thoreau,Lincoln and Carlyle,and these i can read whenever i have free schedule, that's not the worry. But there are essays on English traits,which i am totally uninterested to read,because i found them irrelevant in this century. And that's okay with me.
So it was a great journey reading almost all of Emerson's work only in some days and visiting his own authentic natural world brought in my own world a fresh air of self reliance and inner faith.
My love and respect to Ralph Waldo Emerson.
April 2, 2017
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 – 1882)
« Essential writings »
Emerson’s essays’ are the mirror of his vast knowledge drawn from extensive readings in ancient historical philosophies and religions, as well as personal studies of theology and preaching in his younger years as a minister of the Protestant Church.
Not unlike Montaigne, he quotes throughout his writings, words, beliefs, and thoughts of Plato, Heraclitus, Aristotle, Zenon, Epicurus, and other, more recent, philosophers.
He will also quote ancient religious sources, Brahman, Egyptian, Hebraic, and Islamic.
In his essays, Emerson is taking on subject by subject, like History, Nature, The American Scholar, An Address, The Transcendentalist, The Lord’s Supper, Plato the Philosopher, Napoleon The man of the World, English traits, Farming, and many others.
The style of his writings sounds to me like a spoken discourse, almost preaching.
Very dense in contents, his wisdom and knowledge all stacked up throughout, with little space for the reader to absorb the avalanche of input, so that for me at length it was really difficult. Still, I did learn many a thing that I did not know before, and that is what I enjoy in reading classic literature.
« Essential writings »
Emerson’s essays’ are the mirror of his vast knowledge drawn from extensive readings in ancient historical philosophies and religions, as well as personal studies of theology and preaching in his younger years as a minister of the Protestant Church.
Not unlike Montaigne, he quotes throughout his writings, words, beliefs, and thoughts of Plato, Heraclitus, Aristotle, Zenon, Epicurus, and other, more recent, philosophers.
He will also quote ancient religious sources, Brahman, Egyptian, Hebraic, and Islamic.
In his essays, Emerson is taking on subject by subject, like History, Nature, The American Scholar, An Address, The Transcendentalist, The Lord’s Supper, Plato the Philosopher, Napoleon The man of the World, English traits, Farming, and many others.
The style of his writings sounds to me like a spoken discourse, almost preaching.
Very dense in contents, his wisdom and knowledge all stacked up throughout, with little space for the reader to absorb the avalanche of input, so that for me at length it was really difficult. Still, I did learn many a thing that I did not know before, and that is what I enjoy in reading classic literature.
March 2, 2014
Ralph Waldo Emerson is probably my favorite philosopher/poet. He combines poetry and prose wonderfully, treating human affairs, emotions and morals purely as aspects of nature, and all of nature as having the same soul as people. The range of his subjects is wide and varied, from the most metaphysical aspects of reality to the most mundane actions of daily life. Despite him having written in the mid 19th century, and often writing more as a poet than most philosophers, his writing is pretty straightforward (though perhaps not as much as his friend Henry David Thoreau's). As of now I don't think I will ever stop reading and rereading his essays, I get so much out of them each time, they have a way of making me feel optimistic and inspired, as much and probably more than any other philosophical or theological writings I've read.
June 12, 2009
I read most of this collection during an independent study during my junior year of college. I picked it up again last night and can't put it down; Emerson changed the way I think about everything.
January 27, 2021
I initially planned to read this a bit a night over the year, but I incidentally found myself reading large chunks every night. Everything about the transcendentalist movement resonates (it’s called that because transcendentalism is meant to explain the aspects of nature and humanity that transcend time or space, so that an Ancient Greek and Emerson himself could converse about the same experience). Emerson is a poet-philosopher or a philosopher poet, and I recommend his writings to anyone who wants to learn about the philosophy of New England, and more broadly America. One of the last quotes from Thoreau about Emerson stuck with me: “in his world every man would be a poet, Love would reign, Beauty would take place, man and nature would harmonize.”
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May 4, 2023I only read the first series of essays containing Self Reliance and Nature.
Now I understand why Nietzsche felt that Emerson was "a kindred spirit, a "brother soul""
Definitely worth studying further. And deeper. Especially Emerson's transcendentalist spirituality.
Now I understand why Nietzsche felt that Emerson was "a kindred spirit, a "brother soul""
Definitely worth studying further. And deeper. Especially Emerson's transcendentalist spirituality.
July 26, 2021
The formal language and depth of the philosophy/theology are beyond me.
July 16, 2023
Emerson, deeply admired by Frost, seemed like an American voice in one of the better humanistic tones. He relayed American values in the best sense and did a marvellous job for America for voicing out what’s it to be a good individual in changing world. There are marks in history where we seek guidance as people and Emerson filled that void in critical stage of American history.
He is one good folk with sociologist mind to convey deep “good” thoughts and values through his philosophy. His voice at times seemed from heart and his preaching style was perhaps best way to get to hardened hearts.
He is one good folk with sociologist mind to convey deep “good” thoughts and values through his philosophy. His voice at times seemed from heart and his preaching style was perhaps best way to get to hardened hearts.
March 27, 2018
I found this astounding collection of essays rather hard to get through. Not because they were bad, or poorly written, but because they were so wonderful. While I thought some of his ideas were rather questionable - I'm not a big fan of natural theology (at least as I understand it) - his positions were still clearly made and forced me to seriously consider a number of my positions. Some parts I struggled to understand, but after thinking about them for a bit I found the ideas so great that I couldn't help gasping out loud a number of times, startling my roommate so many times I almost got tossed out (I read late into the night).
When grappling with a giant of his stature, almost every essay is torturous in a most wonderful manner. I am not surprised other reviewers have compared him to Nietzsche, as they have many of the same writing qualities, despite some very large disagreements.
Here's an example of some of his writing from the essay on Intellect, talking about role-models and favorite authors that sums up a lot of my feelings: "Take thankfully and heartily all they can give. Exhaust them, wrestle with them, let them not go until their blessing be won, and after a short season the dismay will be overpast, the excess of influence withdrawn, and they will be no longer an alarming meteor, but one more bright star shining serenely in your heaven and blending its light with all your day."
I definitely recommend this book, and I will return to it in the future.
When grappling with a giant of his stature, almost every essay is torturous in a most wonderful manner. I am not surprised other reviewers have compared him to Nietzsche, as they have many of the same writing qualities, despite some very large disagreements.
Here's an example of some of his writing from the essay on Intellect, talking about role-models and favorite authors that sums up a lot of my feelings: "Take thankfully and heartily all they can give. Exhaust them, wrestle with them, let them not go until their blessing be won, and after a short season the dismay will be overpast, the excess of influence withdrawn, and they will be no longer an alarming meteor, but one more bright star shining serenely in your heaven and blending its light with all your day."
I definitely recommend this book, and I will return to it in the future.
January 29, 2023
The quote on the cover is a perfect summation of the effects the writings of Emerson have on an attentive soul, "bringing you to a boil."
Emerson delectable prose is primarily focus on bringing to the forefront the eternal tension of the two aspects of our existence:
1) That what is beyond us, in nature, its laws, God, neccesity. The static.
2) That what is ever shifting in us, our conduct, will, self-reliance. The dynamic.
How these two forces seem to interact in our life, our relation to nature, in the importance of impression over fact, on our history as a biography of the individual, etc.
Other neat details presented here is the analysis of historical figures, both old and contemporary to his time, and how they exhibit characteristics of that play of forces. The heavy anti-slavery stance is also well argued without clashing awkwardly with the previous material, and it's honestly a breath of fresh air to read on someone that doesn't have the most hideous and parasitic politics.
My interest in Emerson is obviously attached to whatever influence he exerted of Musil. It's plain to see what Musil saw on his writings, he even quoted the essay "Circles" on The Man Without Qualities. How I wish to live up to the ideal of the poet that Emerson so eloquently argued for, and as I see it, it's the supreme role of the artist.
Emerson delectable prose is primarily focus on bringing to the forefront the eternal tension of the two aspects of our existence:
1) That what is beyond us, in nature, its laws, God, neccesity. The static.
2) That what is ever shifting in us, our conduct, will, self-reliance. The dynamic.
How these two forces seem to interact in our life, our relation to nature, in the importance of impression over fact, on our history as a biography of the individual, etc.
Other neat details presented here is the analysis of historical figures, both old and contemporary to his time, and how they exhibit characteristics of that play of forces. The heavy anti-slavery stance is also well argued without clashing awkwardly with the previous material, and it's honestly a breath of fresh air to read on someone that doesn't have the most hideous and parasitic politics.
My interest in Emerson is obviously attached to whatever influence he exerted of Musil. It's plain to see what Musil saw on his writings, he even quoted the essay "Circles" on The Man Without Qualities. How I wish to live up to the ideal of the poet that Emerson so eloquently argued for, and as I see it, it's the supreme role of the artist.
April 21, 2011
Back to Basics: Reading Emerson
Reading Emerson might make readers slightly sad (more about that later), not that Emerson expresses gloom in his most influential essays: Nature, TheDivinity School Address, and Self Reliance. His words reflect the optimism he felt for the power of the individual to understand how they fit into the world and how they might serve their community and country. A child of the American Revolution, he and his audience...
Continue reading on Examiner.com: The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Why are they essential? - National Green Living | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/green-living-...
February 12, 2009
This is a very deep book--very fitting for a deep person such as myself. :o) Seriously, this book is a lot to chew and I'm only reading it for English. However, I can honestly say that the parts I understood really were kind of interesting.
March 23, 2019
An old fellow once told me “All you need is Emerson and Dostojevski.” Wait, I think I read that somewhere, here on Goodreads.. Anyway, that old fellow was right: All you need is Emerson and Dostojevskij. Yes, and you’re good to go. Where? Why anywhere!
April 28, 2012
"To the attentive eye, each moment of the year has its own beauty; and in the same field, it beholds, every hour, a picture which was never seen before and which shall never be seen again."
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August 18, 2012Ahhhh......if only we lived in the same era and could share a cup of coffee on a big white porch of a grand old house on main street USA.
November 4, 2015
Repetition beautifully articulated.
June 4, 2016
You're never done reading Emerson! Because of this I can not review it, I'm still to this day learning more from his writing. Strongly recommend his work as a life long partner!
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