RALPH WALDO EMERSON

Ralph Waldo Emerson was born on May 25, 1803 in Boston, Massachusetts. He is widely regarded as one of America’s most influential authors, philosophers and thinkers.

At one time a Unitarian minister, Emerson left his pastorate because of doctrinal disputes with his superiors. Soon after, on a trip to Europe, he met a number of intellectuals, including Tho­mas Carlyle and William Wordsworth.

The ideas of these men, along with those of Plato and some of the Hindu, Buddhist and Persian thinkers, strongly influenced his development of the philosophy of «Transcendentalism». In 1836 Emerson expressed Transcendentalism’s main principle of the «mystical unity of nature» in his essay, «Nature».

Emerson urged independent thinking and stressed that not all life’s answers are found in books.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, whose original profession and calling was as a Unitarian minister, left the ministry to pursue a career in writing and public speaking. He became one of America’s best known and best loved 19th century figures.

Among his friends were Hawthorne, Thore'au, Bronson Alcott, Walt Whitman, Abraham Lincoln and others.

Emerson died on 27 April, 1882.

You can read here some of his famous quotations:

All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.

It was a high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, «Always do what you are afraid to do».

Make yourself necessary to someone.

Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.

The glory of friendship is not the outstretched hand, nor the kindly smile, nor the joy of companionship; it is the spiritual inspiration that comes to one when he discovers that someone else believes in him and is willing to trust him with his friendship.

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. That which we persist in doing becomes easier for us to do;
not that the nature of the thing itself is changed, but that our
power to do is increased.

What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not been discovered. The god of the cannibals will be a cannibal, of the crusaders a crusader, and of the merchants a merchant. It is easy to live in the world after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after your own; but great is the one who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the inde- pendence of solitude. Poverty demoralizes. Is it so bad 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. The secret of education lies in respecting the pupil.

Questions_______________________

1. Who was Ralph Waldo Emerson?

2. When was he born?

3. Who was among his friends?

4. Do you like any other philosophers?

5. When did Ralph Waldo Emerson die?

6. Which of Emerson’s quotations do you like best?

Date: 2015-12-17; view: 853