Ralph Waldo Emerson

Thinking Out Loud ~ Are You Following the Herd?

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In his work, Self Reliance, Ralph Waldo Emerson writes, “Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.” Pps. 122-123

NOTE: The great herd tries its best to conform and make sure what it says conforms to what the herd wants it to say. Researchers point out that the greatest ideas and innovations come from the edges. They come from people who do not conform to the herd but intuitively listen to a different voice. If you’re feeling an internal conflict, it may be time to think about leaving the herd mentality and walking to edge.

Thinking Out Loud – Are You and Independent Thinker?

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Think Your Own Thoughts

In his work, Self Reliance, Ralph Waldo Emerson writes, “What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think. This rule, equally arduous in actual and in intellectual life, may serve for the whole distinction between greatness and meanness. It is the harder, because you will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it. It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.” P. 118

NOTE: Maintaining one’s independence of thought is important in a world that screams at us telling us what is right or wrong. Some stop thinking and allow others to think for them. They then become the parrots of these people muttering things they themselves do not understand. An independent thinkers weighs what he hears and makes a judgement on the worthiness of what he heard. Question everything.

Thinking Out Loud

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It Takes Courage to Follow Your Path

In his work, Self Reliance, Ralph Waldo Emerson writes, ““There is a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till.” P. 111

NOTE: We are who we are. What we do with who we are is up to us. It takes heaps of courage to recognize that whatever we do or become is up to us. We are free men and women. When we capitulate and envy or imitate others we sacrifice our freedom for an illusion. No singer, for example, knows when he begins his career whether he will be publicly successful. The singer knows in her heart that she must sing. Whatever our path, if we give it our best, we do not need the applause of others to know we are successful. Our hearts will know.

Today’s Inspiration ~ My Wish for You

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This is my wish for you: Comfort on difficult days, smiles when sadness intrudes, rainbows to follow the clouds, laughter to kiss your lips, sunsets to warm your heart, hugs when spirits sag, beauty for your eyes to see, friendships to brighten your being, faith so that you can believe, confidence for when you doubt, courage to know yourself, patience to accept the truth, Love to complete your life.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Today’s Reflection: ~ Inner Strength

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Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Today’s Reflection ~ It’s All About Attitude

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Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Give All To Love ~ Emerson

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Give all to love;
Obey thy heart;
Friends, kindred, days,
Estate, good fame,
Plans, credit, and the muse;
Nothing refuse.

‘Tis a brave master,
Let it have scope,
Follow it utterly,
Hope beyond hope;
High and more high,
It dives into noon,
With wing unspent,
Untold intent;
But ’tis a god,
Knows its own path,
And the outlets of the sky.
‘Tis not for the mean,
It requireth courage stout,
Souls above doubt,
Valor unbending;
Such ’twill reward,
They shall return
More than they were,
And ever ascending.

Leave all for love; – 
Yet, hear me, yet,
One word more thy heart behoved,
One pulse more of firm endeavor,
Keep thee to-day,
To-morrow, for ever,
Free as an Arab
Of thy beloved.
Cling with life to the maid;
But when the surprise,
Vague shadow of surmise,
Flits across her bosom young
Of a joy apart from thee,
Free be she, fancy-free,
Do not thou detain a hem,
Nor the palest rose she flung
From her summer diadem.

Though thou loved her as thyself,
As a self of purer clay,
Tho’ her parting dims the day,
Stealing grace from all alive,
Heartily know,
When half-gods go,
The gods arrive.

Something Sings ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Let me go where’er I will,

I hear a sky-born music still:

It sounds from all things old,

It sounds from all things young,

From all that’s fair, from all that’s foul,

Peals out a cheerful song.

It is not only in the rose,

It is not only in the bird,

Not only where the rainbow glows,

Nor in the song of woman heard,

But in the darkest, meanest things

There alway, alway something sings.

‘Tis not in the high stars alone,

Nor in the cup of budding flowers,

Nor in the redbreast’s mellow tone,

Nor in the bow that smiles in showers,

But in the mud and scum of things

There alway, alway something sings.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Poem of Courage ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

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As the bird trims her to the gale,
I trim myself to the storm of time,
I man the rudder, reef the sail,
Obey the voice at eve obeyed at prime;
“Lowly faithful, banish fear,
Right onward drive unharmed;
The port, well worth the cruise, is near,
And every wave is charmed.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Today’s Reflection ~ Authenticity

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“Insist on yourself; never imitate… Every great man [or woman] is unique.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

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