“Our age is retrospective. It builds the sepulchres of the fathers. It writes biographies, histories, and criticism. 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?”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Nature (Primary source)
This is considered Emerson’s foundational text and the cornerstone of American Transcendentalism. In it, he outlines his philosophy of nature as a source of spiritual insight and a mirror to the human soul. It calls for an original relation to the universe and a rejection of traditional ways of understanding the world.
“In skating over thin ice, our safety is in our speed.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson Primary source“The only way to have a friend is to be one.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson Primary source“Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson Primary source“The reward of a thing well done, is to have done it.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson Primary sourceMore quotes by Ralph Waldo Emerson →
“Art is a jealous mistress, and, if a man have a genius for painting, poetry, music, architecture, or philosophy, he makes a bad husband, and an ill provider.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson Primary source“My God what would a man do with a woman like that except worship her?”
— Ernest Hemingway Primary source“For those who live with God there is no last meeting.”
— Helen Keller Primary source“You will be careful, if you are wise; how you touch men's religion, or credit, or eyes.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source