The Best of Ralph Waldo Emerson: A collection of his greatest work

by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Joseph Anthony Amoroso

This Book contains Ten of Emerson's best and most profound essays, including the essay on "compensation" that is recommended by Napoleon Hill in the "Law of Success" Series. This collection of works by Ralph Waldo Emerson is accompanied by a history about the writer and some of his most famous and inspiring quotes.

Genres: Poetry, Philosophy, Classics, Essays

302 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1941

About the author

Ralph Waldo Emerson was born in Boston in 1803. Educated at Harvard and the Cambridge Divinity School, he became a Unitarian minister in 1826 at the Second Church Unitarian. The congregation, with Christian overtones, issued communion, something Emerson refused to do. "Really, it is beyond my comprehension," Emerson once said, when asked by a seminary professor whether he believed in God. (Quoted in 2,000 Years of Freethought edited by Jim Haught.) By 1832, after the untimely death of his first wife, Emerson cut loose from Unitarianism. During a year-long trip to Europe, Emerson became acquainted with such intelligentsia as British writer Thomas Carlyle, and poets Wordsworth and Coleridge. He returned to the United States in 1833, to a life as poet, writer and lecturer. Emerson inspired Transcendentalism, although never adopting the label himself. He rejected traditional ideas of deity in favor of an "Over-Soul" or "Form of Good," ideas which were considered highly heretical. His books include Nature (1836), The American Scholar (1837), Divinity School Address (1838), Essays, 2 vol. (1841, 1844), Nature, Addresses and Lectures (1849), and three volumes of poetry. Margaret Fuller became one of his "disciples," as did Henry David Thoreau.

The best of Emerson's rather wordy writing survives as epigrams, such as the famous: "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines." Other one- (and two-) liners include: "As men's prayers are a disease of the will, so are their creeds a disease of the intellect" (Self-Reliance, 1841). "The most tedious of all discourses are on the subject of the Supreme Being" (Journal, 1836). "The word miracle, as pronounced by Christian churches, gives a false impression; it is a monster. It is not one with the blowing clover and the falling rain" (Address to Harvard Divinity College, July 15, 1838). He demolished the right wing hypocrites of his era in his essay "Worship": ". . . the louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons" (Conduct of Life, 1860). "I hate this shallow Americanism which hopes to get rich by credit, to get knowledge by raps on midnight tables, to learn the economy of the mind by phrenology, or skill without study, or mastery without apprenticeship" (Self-Reliance). "The first and last lesson of religion is, 'The things that are seen are temporal; the things that are not seen are eternal.' It puts an affront upon nature" (English Traits , 1856). "The god of the cannibals will be a cannibal, of the crusaders a crusader, and of the merchants a merchant." (Civilization, 1862). He influenced generations of Americans, from his friend Henry David Thoreau to John Dewey, and in Europe, Friedrich Nietzsche, who takes up such Emersonian themes as power, fate, the uses of poetry and history, and the critique of Christianity. D. 1882.
Ralph Waldo Emerson was his son and Waldo Emerson Forbes, his grandson.

Reviews

[Adam Goddard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Comfy Bloomer philosophy

[Nonna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Emerson was a very interesting character, a deep thinker and lived, for the most part the way he believed. I liked his writings very much and will probably be going back and reading them again !

[Sam Rennick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everybody who's anybody has written a collection of essays designed to make the reader a better human being. When you come right down to it, are they all that different, whether it's Francis Bacon or Montaigne or Ralph Waldo Emerson? "Honesty is the best policy," goes the old saying, and these fellows are going to say much the same thing about it. (Maybe not Machiavelli.) That said, returning to Emerson after a long absence, I find his ideas as bracing as ever. For instance: "The selfishness which hoards the corn for high prices is the preventive of famine;" and "Nature suffers nothing to remain in her kingdoms which cannot help itself;" and, quoting a Persian proverb, "Fooled thou must be, though wisest of the wise: Then be the fool of virtue, not of vice." One could do worse than start his day with a chapter from this book.

[Lynn Deroche · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing style of the mid1800s made this hard reading.

[Taylor Torregrossa · Rating 4 out of 5]

While his poems lacked much to be desired, I found Waldo’s essays incredibly inspiring. 3.5 stars, only knocked off for how much of his poetry I had to sift through 😅.

[Larry Hostetler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Apparently Emerson is beyond my ken. I muddled through this book, and except in a couple of instances strove hard to understand the thought process, the meanings of his writings.

Perhaps it is the depths of thought I was unable to plumb; perhaps it is the language of the early 1800s that seemed stilted and overwrought. Whatever the reason I was both unable to appreciate his ideas and unable to "get into" the subject matters covered.

The addresses were lengthy and uninteresting to me. The essays on various topics frankly boring due to the voluble nature of his writing (and presumably his speaking). The poetry did not effect any concomitant epiphany or appreciation.

An example: "The world - this shadow of the soul, or other me - lies wide around. Its attractions are the keys which unlock my thoughts and make me acquainted with myself. I run eagerly in to this resounding tumult. I grasp the hands of those next me, and take my place in the ring to suffer and to work, taught by an instinct that so shall the dumb abyss be vocal with speech. I pierce its order; I dissipate its fear; I dispose of it within the circuit of my expanding life." And that's only the first half of the paragraph. Perhaps some find it inspiring, but not I.

The one part that I felt was worth remembering is at the end his essay on poetry, where he writes to "O poet." That overwrought writing still has inspiration.

But by the time I got to page 248 it was a pleasant surprise rather than an expectation.

[Andrew Weitzel · Rating 5 out of 5]

These are classic essays for a reasons. We'd be much better off if more people would actually read them.

[Liz Hull]

Most of this stuff goes right over my head when I try to read it, so I only read from it every once in a while. It's very wordy and complex, but it's like brain food those times I do read from it.