I'm reading Emerson's Essays, Series 1 & Series 2 from the American Library Edition, so while the collection is a little different, I am left with a series of questions which I would love to discuss with someone. Perhaps I am perverse, but I can't figure out where to stand in relation to Emerson. I suppose I want to be a believer, to follow him, to take his essays as personally instructive and applicable to my life. And yet at the same time, for the most part, I can't find how they are of use in...

Read this to free yourself.

作品集，整本书非常长：）爱默生是超验主义（强调人的主观能动性）和个人自由主义的代表人物。他对自己的总结是“In all my lectures, I have taught one doctrine, namely, the infinitude of the private man.”他相信万事万物皆有神性。所有的作品其实都是围绕着”Human” and “Nature”两大主题。“There is throughout nature something mocking, something that leads us on and on, but arrives nowhere, keeps no faith with us. … The hunger for wealth, which reduces the planet to a garden, fools the eager pursuer. … Thought, virtue, beauty, were the ends; but it was known that men of thought and virtue so...

“Our age is retrospective,” wrote Emerson. Emerson fought for individuals to trust the divine within and stop relying on past individuals to tell us what to do. “Books are the best of things, well used; abused, among the worst...They are for nothing but to inspire.” Fascinating read. I think I’m a Transcendentalist.

Emerson was - in my mind - beyond brilliant. While I have always heard of him, he was brought to my attention after reading Thoreau's Walden for the first time in 2017. It was then, that I was seriously introduced to Ralph Waldo Emerson. NOTE #1: I read his famous "Nature" in this book. Then I went on to read "The American Scholar" which is a famous speech he gave at Harvard (where he - and Henry David Thoreau - and Troy Farlow, ha! went to college - might as well have some fun here!). And then

I might take the book mark back to the front and start this over again. Awesome fails description.

This collection of essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson has attracted my attention for a long time, but there is absolutely no free time to read it. Reviews of this collection confirm the good reputation of the author. As soon as I find help with the medical writing fellowship I will definitely read his essays. Besides, I already have this collection. Friends gave me for my birthday, it remains only to free myself and have a pleasant time while reading. I'm looking forward to.

I'm adding this on 12-17-09:I have been checking this in and out of the library since August, I think will just post as I go. It is just too dense to somehow, summarize with a simple “Thumbs up!” More recently I have been focusing on how Emerson represented and interpreted a certain climate that existed in New England during this time. Mormonism developed in the same climate and this is of interest to me. There are some important parallels in how Emerson views man and the doctrine of the Mormon

By all rights I should give this a 5. Emerson is the quintessential American and quite frankly probably the quintessential human being, by my lights. At his peak, which he hits here often (see especially: The Poet, The American Scholar, The Divinity School Address, and the final chapter of The Conduct of Life), his every sentence falls like a fiery brand imprinting itself forever on my mind. Stylistically, he is an absolutely incredible writer, and his content burns. Emerson speaks to you and on...

In alluding just now to our system of education, I spoke of the deadness of its details. But it is open to graver criticism than the palsy of its members: it is a system of despair. The disease with which the human mind now labors, is want of faith. Men do not believe in a power of education. We do not think we can speak to divine sentiments in man, and we do not try. We renounce all high aims. We believe that the defects of so many perverse and so many frivolous people, who make up society, are...

Emerson was one of the most influential writers of my adolescence. I read his entire collected works, even the journals, and felt a deep communion with him always.

I enjoyed returning to Emerson, in part because he was one of those authors that I ran into, in tiny doses, in high school and LOVED. So, coming back to him as an adult was inevitable and rewarding.And challenging: 19th century philosophical prose is dense, and so progress was slow. But some of these essays rise to the level of prose poetry. I'd particularly recommend the chapter in the first series of essays on "The Over-Soul" and the part of "The Conduct of Life" on "Worship". Emerson is oft q...

The thing I like the best about Emerson is that he provides a pattern of life that I can live with. He balances the spiritual, intellectual, emotional, and physical lives in a way that seems quite useful to me.I probably won't give this five stars just because he can be long-winded and boring at times, but there is still plenty of excitement too.I definitely am finding the second series of essays inferior to the first. I had high hopes for "Experience" for instance but found it unclear and bloat...

I appreciate Emerson's passion, but his rhetoric is overblown and sophistical. He excuses his inconsistency with a pithy phrase that has become his trademark, but his careless thinking isn't so much a hobgoblin as a morass. He has a good heart, so it's hard to give the man a pitiful two-star review. Unfortunately, I think he's peddling snake oil. He provides the perfect argument against idealism while intending just the opposite. I admit that I didn't read all of these essays but like the fine p...

Holy mother, I finally finished this tome of beauty. I read it in small increments, with other books in between, throughout the past 16 months and it was always a treat. Emerson is a wonder.

I'm sure every good thing that can be said about this book has been said countless times.I go to it often to find a quote I've read in another book so I can see the original context in which it was written.I also use it for a "turn to a random page" book.I will own it forever.

A wealth of information. I feel my relative had incredible spiritual teachings that the world didn't accept until this age. It proves to me that although his thoughts weren't as acceptable then, they give us great awareness of the spirituality of life and the struggles of the human, while living on earth. He is very deep and each time I read this book, I learn more. Again this is proof as to how we learn as humans. We each have the understanding according to our level of consciousness and so whe...

Turns out Emerson is remembered for his best work. The collected work is interesting because it reveals more of the mind behind the essays, but the essays themselves feel more like a product of their time than bolts of genuine, timeless insight like his best pieces. He raises interesting questions about his wide-ranging subjects of interest - national character, the nature of the sacrament of Communion and whether it makes sense given the history of the early Church, and every virtue he could th...

Emerson is America’s great Transcendental philosopher of nature. I’m not a nature lover, however. I don’t think more truths are to be had walking through a forest than walking down a city street. I don’t think nature is an unambiguous good, extolling lessons of virtue and justice. Nature, to me, is more equivocal, more problematic. Let’s be perfectly clear: It’s trying to kill you. All the time. Everywhere. It is a remorseless battleground for survival. It’s through these jaded eyes I’m reviewin...

Can't get enough Emerson! This hits the spot nicely.