Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson Poems
- Fate Deep in the man sits fast his fate To mould his ...
- Give All To Love Give all to love; Obey thy heart; Friends,...
- The Bell I love thy music, mellow bell, I love thine iron ...
- Days Daughters of Time, the hypocritic Days, Muffled and ...
- Song Of Nature Mine are the night and morning, The pits of ...
- Dirge Knows he who tills this lonely field To reap its ...
- Beauty Was never form and never face So sweet to SEYD as ...
Emerson's father was a Unitarian minister who died leaving his son to be brought up by his mother and aunt. Educated at Harvard, Emerson began writing journals filled with observations and ideas which would form the basis of his later essays and poems.
After a period of teaching, Emerson returned to Harvard to join the Divinity School where he was less than a perfect student owing to his poor health and a lack of conviction in religious dogma. He was ordained and was both effective and popular as a preacher, but felt compelled to resign because he did not feel he could conscientiously serve communion. In 1832 Emerson visited Europe, where he met Wordsworth, Coleridge and Carlyle ... more »
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Quotationsmore quotations »
''There is no one who does not exaggerate. In conversation, men are encumbered with personality, and talk too much.''Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), U.S. essayist, poet, philosopher. :"Nominalist and Realist," Essays, Second Series (1844).
''Those who have ruled human destinies, like planets, for thousands of years, were not handsome men.''Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), U.S. essayist, poet, philosopher. "Beauty," The Conduct of Life (1860).
''The covetousness or the malignity, which saddens me, when I ascribe it to society, is my own. I am environed by my self.''Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), U.S. essayist, poet, philosopher. "Character," Essays, Second Series (1844).
''No performance is worth loss of geniality. 'Tis a cruel price we pay for certain fancy goods called fine arts and philosophy.''Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), U.S. essayist, poet, philosopher. "Culture," The Conduct of Life (1860).
''In skating over thin ice, our safety is in our speed.''Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), U.S. essayist, poet, philosopher. Essays, "Prudence," First Series (1841).
Deep in the man sits fast his fate
To mould his fortunes, mean or great:
Unknown to Cromwell as to me
Was Cromwell's measure or degree;
Unknown to him as to his horse,
If he than his groom be better or worse.
He works, plots, fights, in rude affairs,
With squires, lords, kings, his craft compares,
Till late he learned, through doubt and fear,
Broad England harbored not his peer:
Obeying time, the last to own
The Genius from its cloudy throne.
For the prevision is allied
Unto the thing so signified;
Or say, the foresight that awaits