Book Review I had read Emerson’s works once before and I hated it at first reaction always. Well, I decided to read it thoroughly and try to understand it. I was utterly amazed. He had such profound and wonderful things to say. I honestly was deeply touched. I decided to write down everything I got from his piece. It is in very fragmented thoughts, so it may not be in grammatically correct sentences. Well, here goes... Look through our eyes today and not through someone’s from the pa

great works are timeless. sometimes the right book finds you at the right time and makes everything ok.

In school I just learned about Ralph Waldo Emerson the poet. They never taught about him as a thinker and philosopher. This book was amazing. The man was an absolute genius. I highly recommend reading this to gain a wider vision of life.

In all honestly, reading this was such a chore for me. I gave it 4 stars because I felt bad that I didn’t dedicate all of myself into reading and appreciating this work. Excellent writing and philosophy, but it went way over my understanding. I wish I had the patience or intelligence to be able to decipher this better!

Emerson was an early love of mine. I read Emerson every day for at least a half dozen years. Only problem with transcendentalism is that when you annex nature to the soul, it doesn’t necessarily lead to environmentalism. It can lead to a monstrous self that swallows up and subsumes all of nature, “that other me”. Historically the doctrine coincided with manifest destiny, the notion it was the destiny of America to colonize the continent. Parts of the transcendentalist doctrine underwrite this ev...

Okay first of all, the template of the pages of this book is just absolutely divine! It makes the pages look like scrolls of long ago. I wish I could show you pictures! Beautiful bordering and illustrations that I wouldn't necessarily call beautiful themselves but add a certain ambience to the essays and poems written within.This is definitely a must for anyone's library!

A book I will probably always be reading. It's full of such great wisdom that to say," I'm done," with this work would be a travesty.

I first read Emerson in an American Literature course and immediately fell in love. I'm a big fan of nature so the transcendentalist view attracted my attention. Emerson uses very intense vocabulary and sentence structure, but once you spend the time to read things slowly you can decipher so much meaning in his writing. His work is an example of how I hope to write in the future, full of knowledge, experience and eloquence. He gave me an entire new appreciation for nature, making me reconsider e...

If we will takeThe good we find, askingNo questions, weShall have heaping measures.------------------------------To speak truly, few adult persons can seenature. Most personsdo not see the sun. At least they havea very superficial seeing. The sun illuminatesonly the eyes of the man, but shines into the eye and the heart of the child. The lover of nature is he whose inward and outward senses are still truly adjusted to each other and a wild delight runs through, despite real sorrows. A year of pa...

This is astounding. There is a reason why Emerson's words show up on everything from bookmarks to refridgerator magnets. They're pristine and profound. Some of these essays will stay with you long after you read them, as they reach far into your head and heart and demand you to be honest with yourself. The poetry is a little less, but still far reaching.This is astounding. There is a reason why Emerson's words show up on everything from bookmarks to refridgerator magnets. They're pristine and pr...

Emerson is a wonderful writer and Peter Norberg does a great job annotating his rich essays. The prose is always electric. I do think Emerson is dangerously heterodox. He was banned from the Harvard Divinity School for decades. I think his philosophy, of finding revelation in a direct encounter with Nature, is a culmination of Protestantism. Protestantism seeks direct access to God, so why even bother with the Bible, since it has human writers? Emerson actually says we need to put both Jesus and...

This is one of those books destined to remain with us for a lifetime. I recommend it to anyone who wants to get to the marrow of life without fear.

While these essays definitely take a bit of effort to read, they are well worth it. I read this on and off over a period of a year or so. I appreciated that it was easy to pick up, read an essay, and then come back to it later when I had the time. There were so many wonderful bits of knowledge and deep insights included in this book. I found myself constantly underlining things I read and thinking about the ideas throughout the day. Emerson is one of the few 'classic' writers that deserves the l...

Emerson is an American prophet and is the genius behind the Transcendentalist movement. He foresaw the spiritual renaissance, the direction that America was heading in and was ahead of his time in how he saw religion (as opposed to how the masses saw it) as were all the Transcendentalists with him. Unfortunately, his writing suffers from his overwrought style. It just does not hold up and is cumbersome, very difficult to get through. Where his genius really comes through is where it is tightly w...

From Self-Reliance:"There is one mind common among all men.""I would write on the lintels of my doorpost: Whim.""No law can be sacred to me but that of my nature"--------------May 2009 inscription:I fell for **** this month and have constructed an entire imaginary future - is this wrong to entertain? Frustrating, yes, but wrong? I look at @@@ and know I really do like being with him, but want **** too.August 2009 inscription:**** and I went on a scooter trip on Friday to start the perfect long

Every single word in this BOOK by Ralph is truly magical and touched my soul too. Everyone like me can learn a true meaning of all expressions and feelings in its best way!

Great excerpts from his speeches on the evolution of man's skill, the inspiration and limitation of books, the importance of direct experience, how memories evolve with time, trusting our instincts and being ourselves."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.""Insist on yourself; never imitate. Your own gift you can present every moment with the cumulative force of a whole life's cultivation; but of the adopted...

Though he would refute imitation, Emerson often sounds Socratic in his writing about philosophy, though that comparison only stands in tone not content. What you have here is a collection of “translations” of what you already know down inside about your own potential for originality, but adding to the deep history and wellspring of texts for creatives to pull on Emerson articulates it in a way that is definitely his own. Foundational as an approach to naturalism and ever inspiring, a few of my f...

If RW were alive today, he'd be a bestselling self-help guru. This book is fantastic. There are some lesser known essays in this book that are excellent. One such essay is called "Illusions."Self-reliance is a classic essay as is Nature. Power is very interesting as well.I'm not much for Ralph's poetry but he sure could write an amazing essay!

"I feel that nothing can befall me in life--no disgrace, no calamity (leaving me my eyes) which nature cannot repair. Standing on the bare ground--my head bathed by the blithe air, and uplifted into infinite spaces--all mean egoitism vanishes." However, "To speak truly, few adult persons can see nature. Most persons do not see the sun. At least they have a very superficial seeing. The sun illuminates only the eye of the man, but shines into the eye and heart of the child. The lover of nature is