As you have discovered from his writings, Ralph Waldo Emerson was an man of profound thought and incisive observation. His calls to live simply and understand ourselves through the natural world around us have resonance even in, perhaps especially in, today's society.
Your task is to choose one of the following Emerson quotes and explain what you believe it means. You may wish to include examples from your own life, or what you know about transcendentalism, to help illustrate your point. Please use no more than three sentences. You must post your response by the end of class.
Please write the number of the quote in your response so I know which one you picked.This assignment is worth one homework grade.
1. "A man in debt is so far a slave."
2. “Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.”
3. "Don't be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better."
4. “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”
5. “Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.”
6. “It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.”
7. “I cannot remember the books I've read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have made me.”
8. “Cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously. And because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude.”
9. “Guard well your spare moments. They are like uncut diamonds. Discard them and their value will never be known. Improve them and they will become the brightest gems in a useful life.”
10. "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statemen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do"
11. "Shakespeare will never be made by the study of Shakespeare."
12. "Society is a wave. The wave moves forward, but the water of which it is composed does not."
1) I believe that this quote means that if you accumulate debt then you are nothing but a slave to the person you owe because you must do whatever that person tells you to do in order to repay your debt
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ReplyDeleteEmerson likens literature to food because he believes that the knowledge obtained from books is something one can use for the rest of his life. Even though he may not remember where the information came from, its value is just as essential. Similarly, food provides nutrition that is useful for whatever one needs to do.
11) This quote of Emerson depicts that the ideas that famous writers come about, are their own, without a basis of anothers ideas. One comes into himself or herself as a writer by his or her own thoughts, and how he or she displays those thoughts through textual image. One cannot base ideas off someone else's, ideas must be unique to an individual.
ReplyDelete3. With this quote, Emerson teaches the lesson that people should be confident, rather than "timid and squeamish", about their actions, because it is natural that everyone makes mistakes and experiences failure. He says that life is just an "experiment", and believes that everybody, regardless of their backgrounds, is constantly testing the waters, exploring the unknown, and making mistakes along the way. Emerson urges that it is a natural and even productive activity to make mistakes, because with more mistakes comes more success in our endless quest to improve ourselves.
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ReplyDeleteThe meaning of this quote is that life is short; everyone experiences it in a different view so make the most of your experiences and do not simply be afraid about what the public might think of your actions. When Emerson mentions the word "experiment," it implies that one must try new things and experience the most that one person is able to experience. I know that I have not done some things that I've wished I had done and that is what Emerson is talking about; do everything so that you will not regret anything you have or have not done.
#3 Emmerson is saying the more you experiment, the more you will figure out what you like. In order to live life to its fullest, one needs to try as many things as possible even if that means taking risks. In the grand scheme of life, it's not the things you that you did you will regret, but the things you didn't do.
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ReplyDeleteThis quote touches upon the key concept of not focusing too much on our mistakes. Emerson is not denying that we can learn from our past failures; he is simply stating that we must not dwell on the minor mishaps, or let them prevent us from moving on. Every day is a new one; it should be spent on new experiences, not on lamenting over past errors.
Quote #2
ReplyDeleteThis quote means that you should not let your disappointments and failures from previous times stop you from reaching the full potential that each present day holds. These failures are not worth remembering; when something is done, reminiscing over different outcomes will not change the situation, so go into each new day with the attitude that greatness will come, and embrace it. For example if you get a bad grade on a test one day then it would be easy to feel down and defeated in that class but you must move on, look forward and work as hard as you can to make sure you do better next time.
7. Emerson depicts the books that he reads as much of memory of his meals. However, the difference between his meals and the books he has read is that "they have made me", meaning that the books he read really had a significant impact on his character compared to just the food that he consumes. This shows a contradiction in how a book will provide much knowledge as opposed to the simply depicted food, yet Emerson says how reminisces them with the same accuracy.
ReplyDelete3. In this quote Emerson depicts the idea that one must take chances and risks in life; you only live once and if you are too shy in your actions, you will miss out. When using the word "experiment", he implies experiences in life where you don't know the outcome. The more experiences you encounter in life, the more you can grow and learn as a person.
ReplyDelete2. Emerson is implying that it it important to take each day one at a time and not dwell on the past or the future. This is a transcendentalist ideal because they were against religion and therefore against concentrating on the what will happen to them in the afterlife as apposed to living in the present. Emerson is saying that by living in the moment and having no regrets is the only way to live life with clarity.
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ReplyDeleteEmerson is encouraging people to be brave and carefree in making decision that may exceed your own restrictions in life. From confronting adversity to challenging yourself in life's goals, Emerson supports taking as many smart risks in life to adventure in life's uncertainties and to find one's true identity. Additionally, I believe Emerson's description of life as an experiment is significant in promoting future generations to use a trial and error method throughout life to have the most meaningful life possible to the individual.
3. Emerson seems to imply that sometimes living life cautiously is not really a good way to experience life to the fullest.Knowing that being "timid and squeamish" will not help build up a person's confidence to try new things and "experiment" with life to create new experiences. Doubts and fears shouldn't limit you to what you can or cannot do in life they will only create regrets.
ReplyDelete3. In this quote, Emerson is saying that people should be confident in their actions and be not afraid to try new things. Life is compared to an "experiment" implying that actions are tested and and evaluated after they are performed in order to improve future actions. If people are not confident enough to try many and varied experiences and learn from those both successful and unsuccessful, they will not know how to truly live.
ReplyDelete1. I believe this quote means that when you owe someone, you are obligated to do what they say until you pay them back, making yourself the slave to the other person. In society today everyone is in debt with the the necessities of life like car payments, taxes where everyone is simply enslaved to cooperate with these payments. To live where this thought of "freedom" is rare to come across unless your a child.
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