On Man and God

By Ralph Waldo Emerson

Originally published in 1961, the present volume is a collection of thoughts from the essays and journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson, leader of the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. Subjects such as self-reliance, transcendentalism, nature as beauty, love and friendship, America and politics, and religions and sects are included.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Muriwai Books
• Release date: Dec 1, 2018
• ISBN: 9781789124927

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson was the leading proponent of the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-nineteenth century. He was ordained as a Unitarian minister at Harvard Divinity School but served for only three years before developing his own spiritual philosophy based on individualism and intuition. His essay Nature is arguably his best-known work and was both groundbreaking and highly controversial when it was first published. Emerson also wrote poetry and lectured widely across the US.

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Text originally published in 1961 under the same title.

© Muriwai Books 2018, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.

Publisher’s Note

Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.

We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.

EMERSON ON MAN AND GOD

THOUGHTS COLLECTED FROM THE ESSAYS AND JOURNALS

BY

RALPH WALDO EMERSON

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS 3

ON SELF-RELIANCE 4

TRANSCENDENTALISM 6

THERE IS A THREAD… 8

NATURE AS BEAUTY 10

LOVE & FRIENDSHIP 12

AMERICA & POLITICS 14

SOBERING REALITIES 16

THE CREATIVE ACT 18

SIGNS OF GREATNESS 21

ON R.W.E. HIMSELF 23

RELIGIONS & SECTS 25

REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 27

ON SELF-RELIANCE

Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist. He who would gather mortal palms must not be hindered by the name of goodness, but must explore 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.

Difficulties exist to be surmounted. The great heart will no more complain of the obstructions that make success hard, than of the iron walls of the gun which hinder the shot from scattering. It was walled round with iron tube with that purpose, to give it irresistible force in one direction. A strenuous soul hates cheap successes.

A man never gets acquainted with himself, but is always a surprise. We get news daily of the world within, as well as of the world outside, and not less of the central than of the surface facts. A new thought is awaiting him every morning.

Books are the best of things, well used; abused, among the worst. What is the right use? What is the one end which all means go to effect? They are for nothing but to inspire. I had better never see a book than to be warped by its attraction clean out of my own orbit, and made a satellite instead of a system.

To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men—that is genius. Speak your latent conviction, and it shall be the universal sense; for the inmost in due time becomes the outmost, and our first thought is rendered back to us by the trumpets of the Last Judgment.

God offers to every mind its choice between truth and repose. Take which you please—you can never have both. Between