Ralph Waldo Emerson’s diary, 1826

I come with mended eyes to my ancient friend and consoler. Has the interval of silence made the writer wiser? Does his mind teem with well weighed judgments? The…

My years are passing away. Infirmities are already stealing on me that may be the deadly enemies that are to dissolve me to dirt, and little is yet done to…

Any degree of profoundest consideration is due to the leas't action before it is performed, and afterwards the least.

Friendship is something very delicious to my understanding. Yet the friends that occupy my thoughts are not men, but certain phantoms clothed in the form and face…

I pursue my speculations with confidence and, though I can discern no remoter conclusion, I doubt not the train I commence extends farther than I see, as the first…

Health, action, happiness. How they ebb from me ! Poor Sisyphus saw his stone stop once, at least, when Orpheus chaunted. I must roll mine up and up and up how high…

I would write something worthily on the most affecting of topics, upon the personal char- acter and influence and upon the death of Jesus Christ, a being whose…