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The definitive collection of Emerson's major speeches, essays, and poetry, The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson chronicles the life's work of a true "American Scholar." As one of the architects of the transcendentalist movement, Emerson embraced a philosophy that championed the individual, emphasized independent thought, and prized "the splendid labyrinth of one's own perceptions." More than any writer of his time, he forged a style distinct...

During the 1800s in America, the rise of industrialization reduced the cost of goods allowing people to have more possessions than ever before. However, a group known as the Transcendentalists believed that possessions created vanity. Instead, they valued the individual's relationship with divinity. One of the movement's most famous members, Ralph Waldo Emerson, wrote prolifically about his beliefs and experiences. A representative selection of his...

He was an ordained minister, renowned orator, and beloved author and poet whose ideas on nature, philosophy, and religion influenced authors such as Henry David Thoreau and Walt Whitman. Through his writings, Emerson ardently professed the importance of being an individual, resisting the comfort of conformity, and creating an art of living in harmony with nature. This soul-satisfying anthology of twelve favorite essays is a treasure. In the title...

Emerson's discourse on "the laws of compensation", takes on the notion that one who has money must be wicked and those who do not must be good, among other topics. It appeared in his book "Essays", first published in 1841.

The essay on "Prudence" was given as a lecture in a course on Human Culture, in the winter of 1837-8. It was published in the first series of Essays, which appeared in 1841. In it, Emerson describes Prudence as "The virtue of the senses" and admits to having little of it in himself.

Circles is an essay by Ralph Waldo Emerson, first published in 1841. The essay reflects on the vast array of circles one may find throughout nature and what is suggested by these circles in philosophical terms. In the opening line of the essay Emerson states The eye is the first circle; the horizon which it forms is the second; and throughout nature this primary figure is repeated without end.

The American Scholar was a speech given by Ralph Waldo Emerson in 1837, to the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Harvard College. Emerson argues that American culture, still heavily influenced by Europe, could build a new, distinctly American cultural identity. Emerson uses Transcendentalist and Romantic points of view to explain a true American scholar's relationship to nature. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. declared this speech to be America's Intellectual...

In "Manners", Ralph Waldo Emerson expounds on the meaning of customs and politeness in civil society. He argues that the purpose of manners is more to facilitate the creation and proper working of society, and not to establish hierarchies.

"Maugre all the selfishness that chills like east winds to the world, the whole human family is bathed with an element of love like a fine ether" Ralph Waldo Emerson, known as the father of Transcendentalism, rejected the puritan picture of human depravity and instead argued that people were inherently good. In these essays, titled 'Friendship', 'Love', 'Prudence', 'Heroism', 'Character' and 'Manners', Emerson claims that human connection and an...

For more than fifty-five years Ralph Waldo Emerson kept a journal, recording his thoughts on books, authors, and religion, among other subjects. In this engrossing volume editor Perry Bliss presents the best from these journals, carefully selecting passages to create both a revealing portrait of this formidable thinker and a social and historical record of the era in which he lived.