From our inability to grasp the whole truth it thus happens that we select some one accidental feature & by dwelling exclusively on this our imaginations magnify it till we come actually to mistake the part for the whole.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks 2:250
[On the history of peoples]
We are prone to generalize so rapidly that we deceive ourselves & forget that the phrase or even epithet to which we have proudly reduced whole epochs pregnant with the fortunes of our race, are only the subterfuges under which we hide our ignorance & incapacity. For they leave out a thousand particulars which we are unable to grasp at once but which are necessary to the induction of which we are ambitious.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks 2:249
Be not deluded by the love or the fear of man & in that balance that men are disposed to make between personal esteem & public applause, forget not how much better it is to be loved than to be extolled.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks 2:262
… my bearing in the world is the direct opposite of that good humoured independence & self-esteem which should mark the gentleman. Be it here remembered that there is a decent pride which is conspicuous in the perfect model of a Christian man. I am unfortunate also, as was Rienzi, in a propensity to laugh, or rather, snicker. I am ill at ease, therefore, among men. I criticize with hardness; I lavishly applaud; I weakly argue; and I wonder with a foolish face of praise.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks 2:239
I have mentioned a defect of character; perhaps it is not one, but many. Every wise man aims at an entire conquest of himself. We applaud as possessed of extraordinary good sense, one who never makes the slightest mistake in speech or action; one in whom not only every important step of life, but every passage of conversation, every duty of the day, even every movement of every muscle—hands, feet, & tongue, are measured & dictated by deliberate reason. I am not assuredly that excellent creature. A score of words & deeds issue from me daily, of which I am not the master. They are begotten of weakness & born of shame. I cannot assume the elevation I ought,— but lose the influence I should exert among those of meaner or younger understanding, for want of sufficient bottom in my nature, for want of that confidence of manner which springs from an erect mind which is without fear & without reproach. In my frequent humiliation, even before women and children, I am compelled to remember the poor boy who cried, “I told you, Father, they would find me out.” Even those feelings which are counted noble & generous take in me the taint of frailty. For my strong propensity to friendship, instead of working out its manly ends, degenerates to a fondness for particular casts of feature, perchance not unlike the doting of old King James. Stateliness and silence hang very like Mokannah’s suspicious silver veil, only concealing what is best not shewn. What is called a warm heart, I have not.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks 2:240
The war between sentiment & reason is the perpetual wonder that lasts the ‘Nine Days’ of human life. When we calmly think & precisely reason, our life (ever enigmatical enow) has most of sense & design. There is an arrangement perceived in education, & a growth in mind. But when we feel strongly, when we love woman or man, when we hope, or fear, or hate, or aspire with vehemence, the strength of a sentiment is so engrossing & exclusive that it throws all memory & habit for the moment into a remote background; the delusion waxes so strong that it alone remains real & all else shows as strong delusion. An educated man, when he is star gazing or vividly considering for a moment his relations as an eternal being to the world frequently undervalues as nugatory the time and diligence bestowed by him & science and art; forgetting that to this very cultivation he owes that elevation of thought which disgusts him with this world’s unsatisfactoriness. At any rate, however, it is a hard lot to toil for golden fruit, & the fruit when found is poison & ashes. The eye too is enraptured with the peerless & indescribable beauty of form & tint that glow at evening in the western clouds; but the glorious pageant rolls nearer & breaks into a foul & bellowing storm. Thus ever the Mind is enlightened by Misery. If Knowledge be power, it is also Pain.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks 2:222
Good it is to read & to think; the gorgeous array of vivid images that pass thro’ the mind [...] is good. Better it is to remember what was read & to think aright. But the flush goes from the face, & the ardor from the mind. Study is wearisome to the flesh & the book is shut & the mind’s eye sleeps while the body watches.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks 2:220
Men in this age do not produce new works but admire old ones; Are content to leave the fresh pastures awhile, & to chew the cud of thought in the shade.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks 2:208
