RALPH WALDO EMERSON

1803-1882

FATHER OF TRANSCENDENTALISM

FAMOUS QUOTES• The only way to have a

friend is to be one” • “To be great is to be

misunderstood” • “A foolish consistency is the

hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.”

TRANSCENDENTALISM

• The universe is connected to the individual through nature

• By contemplating nature, one can transcend the world and be united with the “Over-Soul”

• One must follow his own intuition and beliefs, no matter how they stray from those of society

WHO WAS EMERSON?

• Happily married, upright, kind, and seemingly conventional

• Held the VERY unconventional view that reality is derived through intuition, not the senses

SUPPORTERS

• Thoreau• Walt Whitman• Emily Dickenson • nearly

worshipped him as a fountain of inspiration

BACKGROUND

•8 years old when his father, a Unitarian minister, died •Mother took in boarders to save money for her 4 sons to attend college •Earned a degree in divinity from Harvard •Married Ellen Tucker in 1829; she died 2 years later and left him financially secure •Married Lydia Jackson in 1834 and began writing

SELF RELIANCE

Many famous quotes: • Envy is ignorance; imitation is

suicide • Whoso would be a man, must

be a non-conformist • Nothing is at last sacred but

the integrity of your own mind • You will always find those who

think they know what is your duty better than you know it.

EMERSON- WHAT TO REMEMBER: • Key intellectual and philosophical

voice of the 19th century • Spread the philosophy of

Transcendentalism • Propelled individualism to the

forefront of the American conscience

• First voiced democracy and ordinary experience as unique American themes