Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803 – April 27, 1882) was an American writer and one of the main leaders of the Trancendentalist movement, along with Henry David Thoreau. He lived in Concord, Massachusetts but he was born in Boston. Emerson's father died of stomach cancer when he was 8 years old, and he was then raised by his mother. One of Emerson's most famous essays is Self-Reliance. The reason Emerson's works became so popular is because he had such radical and new ideas. In Self-Reliance Emerson talks about the ideas of individualism and breaking free from society. At the time, these thoughts were outrageous and unheard of, but they sparked a revolution.
An Excerpt from Self-Reliance:
"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. Speak your latent conviction, and it shall be the universal sense....the highest merit we ascribe to Moses, Plato, and Milton is, that they set at naught books and traditions, and spoke not what men but what they thought. A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashed across his mind from within...Yet he dismisses without notice his thought, because it is his."
Analysis
This excerpt is over flowing with the belief that you should have faith in yourself, and your own ideas. The first line states that if you believe your ideas and beliefs are true for everyone, you are a genius for not succumbing to others thoughts and thinking they are better than your own. Emerson says say your hidden thoughts, and people will agree with you. The reason we believe the old scholars such as Plato, Moses, and Milton to have been so smart is because their ideas and beliefs were new and unique, yet they were not afraid to speak their minds. The last line is a very powerful one. It says people dismiss their own thoughts, just because they are their own thoughts. Which is very true, people to frequently just assume other's opinions are more correct than their own. Emerson advises us against this and thinks we should put full faith in ourselves.
Click HERE to read the full version of Self-Reliance
An Excerpt from Self-Reliance:
"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. Speak your latent conviction, and it shall be the universal sense....the highest merit we ascribe to Moses, Plato, and Milton is, that they set at naught books and traditions, and spoke not what men but what they thought. A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashed across his mind from within...Yet he dismisses without notice his thought, because it is his."
Analysis
This excerpt is over flowing with the belief that you should have faith in yourself, and your own ideas. The first line states that if you believe your ideas and beliefs are true for everyone, you are a genius for not succumbing to others thoughts and thinking they are better than your own. Emerson says say your hidden thoughts, and people will agree with you. The reason we believe the old scholars such as Plato, Moses, and Milton to have been so smart is because their ideas and beliefs were new and unique, yet they were not afraid to speak their minds. The last line is a very powerful one. It says people dismiss their own thoughts, just because they are their own thoughts. Which is very true, people to frequently just assume other's opinions are more correct than their own. Emerson advises us against this and thinks we should put full faith in ourselves.
Click HERE to read the full version of Self-Reliance