Ralph Waldo Emerson
“A man is a god in ruins. When men are innocent, life shall be longer, and shall pass into the immortal, as gently as we awake from dreams.”
“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”
“I trust a good deal to common fame, as we all must. If a man has good corn, or wood, or boards, or pigs, to sell, or can make better chairs or knives, crucibles or church organs, than anybody else, you will find a broad hard-beaten road to his house, though it be in the woods.” From his Journal, February 1855
“Men grind and grind in the mill of a truism, and nothing comes out but what was put in. But the moment they desert the tradition for a spontaneous thought, then poetry, wit, hope, virtue, learning, anecdote, all flock to their aid.” From Literary Ethics, 1838
“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul simply has nothing to do.” From Self-Reliance
As the leader of the Transcendentalists, Emerson believed in a connection between the spiritual and the concrete world. As an essayist, orator, poet, and social activist, Emerson was both revered and hated in his time. He made the bold (at the time) statement that America should declare literary independence from Europe and celebrate its own style and traditions.
He was a big believer in writers and other creative thinkers to keep a personal journal. He felt that Universities and the literary and academic establishment int he United States was becoming too elite and closed off; he felt the ideas being considered by poets and thinkers needed to be brought to the everyday man.
His writings use many oratorical devices such as repetition, contrast, and extended metaphor. His prose often has a distinct rhythm.