Ralph Waldo Emerson’s diary, 1841

I am dispirited by the lameness of an organ : if I have a cold, and the thought I would utter to my friend comes forth in stony, sepulchral tones, I am disgusted,…

Would it not be well to write for the young men at Waterville a history of our present liter- ary and philosophical crisis, a portrait of the par- ties, and read…

Whenever the Church is restored, the culture of the Intellect will be enjoined in it, not, as now, with an apology and reservations, but con- scientiously and to…

Do not cast about for reasons among their shop of reasons, but adduce yourself as the only reason. We forget daily our high call to be discoverers — we forget that…

Aunt Mary, whose letters I read all yesterday afternoon, is Genius always new, subtle, frolic- some, musical, unpredictable. All your learning of all literatures…

These letters revive my faded purpose of writing the oft-requested memoir of Charles. That certainly would have been unfit : it was right for the young and the dear…

Can I not learn that there is nothing settled in manners ? ' . . .

I am sometimes discontented with my house because it lies on a dusty road, and with its sills and cellar almost in the water of the meadow. But when I creep out of…

The Actual. — O Protean Nature, whose energy is change evermore, thou hurlest thyself into a berry or a drop, thou lodgest all thought in a word, all moral quality…

Ah, ye old ghosts ! Ye builders of dungeons in the air ! Why do I ever allow you to encroach on me a moment ; a moment, to win me to your hapless company ? In every…

How noble in secret are the men who have never stooped nor betrayed their faith ! The two or three rusty, perchance wearisome, souls, who could.never bring…

Rightly says Elizabeth, that we do not like to hear our authors censured, for we love them by sympathy as well as for cause, and do not wish to have a reason put in…

Temperament. Every man, no doubt, is elo- quent once in his life. The only difference be- twixt us is that we boil at different degrees of the thermometer. This man…

Exclusives. The close communion Baptists have a crowded communion : the open com- munion Unitarians have an empty table. If you wish to fill your house, make the…

Hippomachus knew a good wrestler by his gait in the street, and an old stager like myself will recognize the subtle Harlequin in his most uncouth frocks, in an…

Milton describes religion in his time as leav- ing the tradesman when he goes into his shop to meet him again when he comes out. ... In so pure a church as the…

Permanence is the nobility of human beings. We love that lover whose gayest love-song, whose fieriest engagement of romantic devotion is made good by all the days…

Good not to let the Conscience sleep, but to keep it irritated by the presence and reiterated action of reforms and ideas.

On this wonderful day when Heaven and Earth seem to glow with magnificence, and all the wealth of all the elements is put under contribution to make the world fine,…