Talks with Ralph Waldo Emerson

Front Cover
Baker & Taylor Company, 1890 - 177 pages
 

Selected pages

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 168 - But lest I should mislead any when I have my own head and obey my whims, let me remind the reader that I am only an experimenter. Do not set the least value on what I do, or the least discredit on what I do not, as if I pretended to settle anything as true or false. I unsettle all things. No facts are to me sacred ; none are profane ; I simply experiment, an endless seeker, with no Past at my back.
Page 89 - Light-winged Smoke, Icarian bird, Melting thy pinions in thy upward flight, Lark without song, and messenger of dawn, Circling above the hamlets as thy nest; Or else, departing dream, and shadowy form Of midnight vision, gathering up thy...
Page 143 - IF the red slayer think he slays, Or if the slain think he is slain, They know not well the subtle ways I keep, and pass, and turn again. Far or forgot to me is near; Shadow and sunlight are the same; The vanished gods to me appear; And one to me are shame and fame. They reckon ill who leave me out? When me they fly, I am the wings; I am the doubter and the doubt, And I the hymn the Brahmin sings.
Page 28 - Newspapers have done much to abbreviate expression, and so to improve style. They are to occupy during your generation a large share of attention. And the most studious and engaged man can neglect them only at his cost. But have little to do with them. Learn how to get their best, too, without their getting yours. Do not read them when the mind is creative. And do not read them thoroughly column by column. Remember they are made for everybody, and don't try to get what isn't meant for you.
Page 50 - Pain thee not each crooked to redress, In trust of her that turneth as a ball; Great rest standeth in little business ; Beware also to spurn against a nalle ; Strive not as doth a crocke with a wall ; Deemeth thyself that deemest other's deed, And truth thee shall deliver 'tis no drede.
Page 131 - Plain his garb; Such as might suit a rustic sire, prepared For sabbath duties ; yet he was a Man Whom no one could have pass'd without remark.
Page 176 - I shall never forget the visitor," at a later date, too, Mrs. Carlyle wrote, "who years ago, in the desert, descended on us out of the clouds, as it were, and made one day there look like enchantment for us, and left me weeping that it was only one day.
Page 171 - Musketaquit, a goblin strong, Of shard and flint makes jewels gay ; They lose their grief who hear his song, And where he winds is the day of day. So forth and brighter fares my stream, — Who drink it shall not thirst again ; No darkness stains its equal gleam, And ages drop in it like rain.
Page 64 - THIS is the Burden of the Heart, The Burden that it always bore; We live to love; we meet to part; And part to meet on earth No More: We clasp each other to the heart, And part to meet on earth No More. There is a time for tears to start,— For dews to fall and larks to soar: The Time for Tears, is when we part To meet upon the earth No More: The Time for Tears, is when we part To meet on this wide earth — No More.

Bibliographic information