The fact Ralph Waldo Emerson essays make most lists attempting to define the American Canon and Harold Bloom indicates American literature starts with Emerson has always puzzled me. My personal bias towards novels over essays and simply not reading Emerson wrongly informed this feelings. Essays - Fi

In these series of essays, Emerson shares his thoughts on different topics united by the ideas that wisdom and truth are for the common man, the importance of sincerity, authenticity, and trusting our own judgements over social conventions, and that all of humanity and nature have some share in the

Challenging essays that have retained their insight and vigor for nearly two centuries. I enjoyed "Self-Reliance" the most.

Every excess causes a defect; every defect an excess.

This voice of fable has in it somewhat divine. It came from thought above the will of the writer.

Beware of too much good staying in your hand. It will fast corrupt and worm worms. Pay it away quickly in some sort.

For the real price of labor is kno

I got interested in Emerson by reading and enjoying Thoreau; although their mutual influence is evident, their writing styles are not alike. Walden would have been ten pages long if Emerson had wrote it. Still, I really enjoyed Emerson too. The essays are best read together even though some are quit

I have a bit problem getting into the book since the style and the phrases used are a little archaic. However after a while, I could feel some rhythm to the language. Still, I am not accustomed to it. I am thinking of coming back to revisit the book later. Sometimes, after several passages, the lang

There are aspects of Emerson that don't do it for me. He believes in Nature, with a big capital N. He's sure he's found it, he's sure it's good, and he's sure that Nature is himself. Sometimes his belief in Nature makes him a thoroughgoing democrat. Everyone, after all, is Natural by definition. But

I highlighted every other page.