*Click on the day of the month for the daily quote.*

A man is a bundle of relations, a knot of roots, 
whose flower and fruitage is the world. 
~Ralph Waldo Emerson~

Ralph Waldo Emerson is best known as an American poet, essayist, and philosopher. He was also a critic, orator, and Unitarian priest. He influenced the work of Henry David Thoreau, Herman Melville, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Henry James, and Robert Frost. He has been described as belonging to the tradition of "wisdom literature" that includes such great people as Confucius and Marcus Aurelius. Emerson mentally overcome hardships in his own life to develop a moral philosophy based on optimism and individualism. Days is considered Emerson's greatest poem. Nature his greatest book. Nature is considered by some as "the best expression of his Transcendentalism." This book explained Transcendentalism's main principle of the "mystical unity of nature." "Emerson urged independent thinking and stressed that not all life's answers are found in books." Emerson believed that we learn best by "engaging life." His motto was "Trust thyself." "Emerson's aim was not merely to charm his readers, but encourage them to cultivate 'self-trust', to become what they ought to be, and to be open to the intuitive world of experience."

Ralph Waldo Emerson was born in 1803 in Boston, Massachusetts. His father, William Emerson, was a minister. As well as his paternal grand-father, also William, who died, at Ticonderoga, where he had gone to serve as chaplain to the army. Emerson's mother, Ruth Haskins Emerson, was the daughter of a successful distiller. Ralph Waldo Emerson was the fourth of five sons born to William and Ruth Emerson. Two brothers suffered mental illness. One spent most of his life in mental institutions. Another brother died in 1834, suffered mental illness also. A third brother died in 1836 of tuberculosis. Much of his early life Emerson was plagued by illness. Until he was 30, he suffered from a lung disease. He would also experience temporary blindness on occasion. "Perhaps the most powerful personal influence on him for years was his intellectual, eccentric, and death-obsessed Puritanical aunt, Mary Moody Emerson."

From 1812 to 1817, Emerson attended Boston Latin School. He entered Harvard in 1817 for four years. While attending Harvard, Emerson kept journals. This practice he carried with him the remainder of his life. Many of his journal entries were the basis for his published works of literature. During his college years Ralph Waldo Emerson dropped his name Ralph and began to go by the name of Waldo. When he left Harvard in 1821, Emerson taught school for young ladies until returning to Harvard Divinity School in 1825. He was licensed to preach in 1826 and appointed junior minister at Second Unitarian Church in Boston, Massachusetts in 1929. He became sole pastor in 1830.

On September 10, 1929, Emerson and Ellen Louisa Tucker were wed. She died of tuberculosis two years later on February 8, 1831. This tragic loss influenced Emerson and changed his religious convictions drastically. He began to question his feelings about the ministry, and refused to carry out the "Lord's Supper" leading to his resignation from the church in 1832. He still preached....but was not affiliated with any church. Upon leaving the ministry, Emerson traveled to Europe for a year. He returned to the states and began his writing and lecturing career. Emerson became known in literary circles as "The Sage of Concord." 

In 1835 Emerson and Lydia Jackson were married. They settled in Concord. Lydia and Emerson had four children, Waldo, Ellen, Edith, and Edward. Waldo died at the age of five. Emerson wrote the poem, Threnody for his son. This was one of Emerson's first poems. Emerson and his family lived in Concord their entire life. Many great literary people visited him here. One of whom was Henry David Thoreau. Thoreau was a handyman around the house. He was a father figure to Emerson's children when Emerson was on tour lecturing. 

Emerson's first book, Nature, was published in 1836. Emerson was 33 years old. Nature was a collection of essays. These essays represented "at least ten years of intense study in philosophy, religion, and literature." In Nature Emerson emphasizes "individualism and rejected traditional authority." He encouraged people to live "a simple life in harmony with nature and with others." As an essayist Emerson encouraged American scholars to "break free of European influences and create a new American culture." His message was very popular with the young generation of that time. The publication of this book prompted the formation of the Transcendental Club in 1836. Transcendentalism was "a reaction against scientific rationalism." Emerson was head of the club which meet informally to discuss new ideas about literature and philosophy. The club published a magazine The Dial. Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry Thoreau were among some of the people who participated in this literary club.

Emerson is famous for his Harvard address called "The American Scholar" delivered in 1837. In this address he gave his view of humanism. He stated that scholars should interpret nature, books, and action and proceed to lead their culture by these means. He urged his listeners to "learn directly from life, know the past through books, and express themselves through action." Later in his "Divinity School Address" given in 1838, Emerson attacked "historical Christianity." He opposed formal Christianity's rituals and sought to emphasis a new religion "founded in nature and fulfilled by direct, mystical intuition of God." Emerson believed in "the moral orderliness of the universe and the divine force governing it." Emerson was not welcome for a number of years at Harvard, because he challenged the "Harvard intelligensia and warned about a lifeless Christian tradition." 

By the 1850s Emerson was successful as a lecturer. His books had also become a means of personal income. Emerson became involved in the antislavery issue. He actively supported woman's rights. In the span of 40 years Emerson gave some 1500 public lectures. Besides the three trips he made to Europe, Emerson usually stayed in Massachusetts. He did however travel sometimes as far as California and Canada. He met William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Thomas Carlyle on his first trip to Europe. Carlyle, a Scottish writer became a lifelong friend of Emerson.

Throughout his life, Emerson refused to accept the existence of evil. This caused Nathaniel Hawthorne and others to doubt Emerson's thoughts. Despite this doubt by others, Emerson's beliefs are very important to the history of American culture. Ralph Waldo Emerson died of pneumonia in 1882.Emerson died of pneumonia on April 27, 1882 in Concord. At his graveside just after Emerson's death, Walt Whitman said: "A just man, poised on himself, all-loving, all-inclosing, and sane and clear as the sun." Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. described Emerson's opinions as "our intellectual Declaration of Independence."

Some other books by Emerson were....Essays, Essays: Second Series, Poems, May-Day, Conduct Of Life, Society And Solitude, Parnassus, Letters And Social Aims, Miscellanies and Lectures And Biographical Sketches. Miscellanies and Lectures And Biographical Sketches, were published posthumously. 

My chief want in life is someone 
who shall make me do what I can.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson~

Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes

Give All to Love

The Snow-Storm

The World-Soul

Essay on Love

Essay on Friendship

  Collection of Love Quotes

Quote of the Day Archive          Favorite Songs        Inspirational Poems & Stories