Ralph

I've been in an Emerson mood lately.  He's always been my favorite Transcendentalist, and a good author to read when one is feeling contemplative, or questioning what's important in life.  I don't think he's the greatest poet in the world, though when I'm feel the Ralph Waldo urge I do delve into them.  I much more enjoy his essays.  Lately I've read through some of his sermons as well.  Emerson was a product of Harvard Divinity (although apparently not especially illustrious) and a Unitarian.

I won't make anyone read the sermons and essays that I've been enjoying, but I strongly suggest checking out "Self Reliance." (Self Reliance)  I actually think its best in front of a woodstove with a glass of good bourbon, with the wind blowing outside.  Emerson believe that man was inherently good, and needed to look within for truth and follow that truth in life.

In case you're not keen on the whole essay, here's a few quotelets to get you thinking (hopefully).  Most of these I've shared with my classes and my kids over the years, but they're still powerful to me. Often people say, "I think I've heard that somewhere before..." and I point out that we have Ralph to thank.

"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."
 

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” 

 

 “Tis the good reader that makes the good book; a good head cannot read amiss: in every book he finds passages which seem confidences or asides hidden from all else and unmistakeably meant for his ear.”

From "Self Reliance:"

 

“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.” 

 

“Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.”

“Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist. He who would gather immortal palms must not be hindered by the name of goodness, but must explore it if it be goodness. Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. Absolve you to yourself, and you shall have the suffrage of the world.”