Reading Ralph Waldo Emerson

The manners of society indicate every hour the consciousness of one Soul. Put three or four educated people together who have not seen each other for years, & perhaps they shall be unable to converse aloud without force. Each predicts the opinion of the other, so that talking becomes tedious. All know what each would say. Why should I officiously & emphatically offer a pail of water to my neighbor Minot? He has a well of his own that sucks the same springs at the same level that mine does. Why should I drum on his tympanum with my words to convey thoughts to which he has access equally with me?

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks 7:55

The great difference between educated men is that one class acknowledge an ideal standard and the other class do not. We demand of an intellectual man, be his defects what they may & his practice what it may, faith in the possible improvement of man.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks 7:54

I decline invitations to evening parties chiefly because beside the time spent, commonly ill, in the party, the hours preceding & succeeding the visit, are lost for any solid use, as I am put out of tune for writing or reading. That makes my objection to many employments that seem trifles to bystander as packing a trunk, or any small handiwork, or correcting proof sheets, that they put me out of tune.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks 7:54

In perfect eloquence, the hearer would lose the sense of dualism; of hearing from another; which seeks to distinguish between the orator & himself; would have the sense only of high activity & progress.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks 7:52

I think myself more a man than some men I know, inasmuch as I see myself to be open to the enjoyment of talents & deeds of other men as they are not. When a talent comes by, which I cannot appreciate & other men can, I instantly am inferior. With all my ears I cannot detect unity or plan in a strain of Beethoven. Here is a man who draws from it a grand delight. So much is he more a man than I.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks 7:50

The length of the discourse indicates the distance of thought between the speaker & the hearer. If they were at a perfect understanding in any part, no words would be necessary thereon. If at one in all parts no words could be suffered.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks 7:50

I think it must be conceded to Books that they are grown so numerous & so valuable that they deserve to have imperfect Characters, half witted persons & the like, persons who are confessedly incapable of working out their own salvation, appointed to study these, & render account of them. For want of a learned class, here, I am in ignorance where valuable facts & theories are found until years after the promulgation.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks 7:49

Dr. Ripley prays for rain with great explicitness on Sunday & on Monday the showers fell. When I spoke of the speed with which his prayers were answered, the good man looked modest.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks 7:49