RALPH WALDO EMERSON FAMOUS QUOTES The only way
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RALPH WALDO EMERSON
FAMOUS QUOTES • The only way to have a friend is to be one” • “To be great is to be misunderstood” • “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. ”
TRANSCENDENTALISM • The universe is connected to the individual through nature • By contemplating nature, one can transcend the world and be united with the “Over-Soul” • One must follow his own intuition and beliefs, no matter how they stray from those of society
WHO WAS EMERSON? • Happily married, upright, kind, and seemingly conventional • Held the VERY unconventional view that reality is derived through intuition, not the senses
SUPPORTERS • • Thoreau Walt Whitman Emily Dickenson nearly worshipped him as a fountain of inspiration
BACKGROUND • 8 years old when his father, a Unitarian minister, died • Mother took in boarders to save money for her 4 sons to attend college • Earned a degree in divinity from Harvard • Married Ellen Tucker in 1829; she died 2 years later and left him financially secure • Married Lydia Jackson in 1834 and began writing
SELF RELIANCE Many famous quotes: • Envy is ignorance; imitation is suicide • Whoso would be a man, must be a non-conformist • Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind • You will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it.
EMERSON- WHAT TO REMEMBER: • Key intellectual and philosophical voice of the 19 th century • Spread the philosophy of Transcendentalism • Propelled individualism to the forefront of the American conscience • First voiced democracy and ordinary experience as unique American themes
