The Prose Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Volume 1Fields, Osgood, 1870 |
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Page 6
... common and in its philosophical import . In inquiries so general as our present one , the inaccuracy is not material ; no confusion of thought will occur . Nature , in the common sense , refers to essences unchanged by man ; space , the ...
... common and in its philosophical import . In inquiries so general as our present one , the inaccuracy is not material ; no confusion of thought will occur . Nature , in the common sense , refers to essences unchanged by man ; space , the ...
Page 6
... common and in its philosophical import . In inquiries so general as our present one , the inaccuracy is not material ; no confusion of thought will occur . Nature , in the common sense , refers to essences unchanged by man ; space , the ...
... common and in its philosophical import . In inquiries so general as our present one , the inaccuracy is not material ; no confusion of thought will occur . Nature , in the common sense , refers to essences unchanged by man ; space , the ...
Page 8
... common , in snow puddles , at twilight , under a clouded sky , without having in my thoughts any occurrence of special good fortune , I have enjoyed a perfect exhilaration . glad to the brink of fear . In the woods too , a man casts off ...
... common , in snow puddles , at twilight , under a clouded sky , without having in my thoughts any occurrence of special good fortune , I have enjoyed a perfect exhilaration . glad to the brink of fear . In the woods too , a man casts off ...
Page 14
... common life , whosoever has seen a person of powerful character and happy genius will have remarked how easily he took all things along with him , the persons , the opinions , and the day , and nature became ancillary to a man . - 3 ...
... common life , whosoever has seen a person of powerful character and happy genius will have remarked how easily he took all things along with him , the persons , the opinions , and the day , and nature became ancillary to a man . - 3 ...
Page 15
... common to them all , that perfectness and harmony , is beauty . The standard of beauty is the entire circuit of natural forms , the totality of nature ; which the Italians expressed by defin- ing beauty " il piu nell ' uno . " Nothing ...
... common to them all , that perfectness and harmony , is beauty . The standard of beauty is the entire circuit of natural forms , the totality of nature ; which the Italians expressed by defin- ing beauty " il piu nell ' uno . " Nothing ...
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Common terms and phrases
action Æsop antinomianism appear astronomy beauty behold better character church comes conservatism conversation divine earth Emanuel Swedenborg Epaminondas eternal exist experience fact faculties faith fear feel force genius gifts give Goethe hand heart heaven Heraclitus hope hour human ical individual intel intellect labor light ligion live look man's manner marriage means mind moral Napoleon nature never noble objects Parliament of Love party pass perfect persons Phidias Pindar plant Plato Plotinus Plutarch poet poetry present prudence reform relations religion rich Rome scholar secret seems sense sentiment Shakespeare society Sophocles soul speak spirit stand stars sublime talent thee things thou thought tion to-day Transcendentalist true truth universal virtue whilst whole wisdom wise words Xenophon youth Zoroaster
Popular passages
Page 16 - Give me health and a day, and I will make the pomp of emperors ridiculous. The dawn is my Assyria; the sunset and moonrise my Paphos, and unimaginable realms of faerie; broad noon shall be my England of the senses and the understanding; the night shall be my Germany of mystic philosophy and...
Page 247 - 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 if it be goodness.
Page 35 - I was there ; when he set a compass upon the face of the depth ; when he established the clouds above ; when he strengthened the fountains of the deep ; when he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment ; when he appointed the foundations of the earth, then I was by him, as one brought up with him ; and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him...
Page 9 - The foregoing generations beheld God and nature face to face; we, through their eyes. Why should not we also enjoy an original relation to the universe? Why should not we have a poetry and philosophy of insight and not of tradition, and a religion by revelation to us, and not the history of theirs?
Page 247 - They do not seem to me to be such; but if I am the Devil's child. I will live then from the Devil." No law can be sacred to me but that of my nature. Good and bad are but names very readily transferable to that or [his; the only right is what is after my constitution; the only wrong what is against it.
Page 245 - To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men, — that is genins.
Page 66 - We will walk on our own feet; we will work with our own hands; we will speak our own minds. The study of letters shall be no longer a name for pity, for doubt, and for sensual indulgence. The dread of man and the love of man shall be a wall of defence and a wreath of joy around all.
Page 264 - For everything that is given, something is taken. Society acquires new arts and loses old instincts. What a contrast between the well-clad, reading, writing, thinking American, with a watch, a pencil, and a bill of exchange in his pocket, and the naked New Zealander, whose property is a club, a spear, a mat, and an undivided twentieth of a shed to sleep under.
Page 245 - Familiar as the voice of the mind is to each, the highest merit we ascribe to Moses, Plato, and Milton is, that they set at naught books and traditions, and spoke not what men but what thev thought. A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the lustre of the firmament of bards and sages.
Page 74 - Alone in all history, he estimated the greatness of man. One man was true to what is in you and me. He saw that God incarnates himself in man, and evermore goes forth anew to take possession of his world.