What do you think?
Rate this book
On Man and God: Thoughts Collected from the Essays and Journals
Thoughts collected from the essays and journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson.
398 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 1961
3 people are currently reading
54 people want to read
About the author
Ralph Waldo Emerson
3,421 books5,365 followersRalph Waldo Emerson was born in Boston in 1803. Educated at Harvard and the Cambridge Divinity School, he became a Unitarian minister in 1826 at the Second Church Unitarian. The congregation, with Christian overtones, issued communion, something Emerson refused to do. "Really, it is beyond my comprehension," Emerson once said, when asked by a seminary professor whether he believed in God. (Quoted in 2,000 Years of Freethought edited by Jim Haught.) By 1832, after the untimely death of his first wife, Emerson cut loose from Unitarianism. During a year-long trip to Europe, Emerson became acquainted with such intelligentsia as British writer Thomas Carlyle, and poets Wordsworth and Coleridge. He returned to the United States in 1833, to a life as poet, writer and lecturer. Emerson inspired Transcendentalism, although never adopting the label himself. He rejected traditional ideas of deity in favor of an "Over-Soul" or "Form of Good," ideas which were considered highly heretical. His books include Nature (1836), The American Scholar (1837), Divinity School Address (1838), Essays, 2 vol. (1841, 1844), Nature, Addresses and Lectures (1849), and three volumes of poetry. Margaret Fuller became one of his "disciples," as did Henry David Thoreau.
The best of Emerson's rather wordy writing survives as epigrams, such as the famous: "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines." Other one- (and two-) liners include: "As men's prayers are a disease of the will, so are their creeds a disease of the intellect" (Self-Reliance, 1841). "The most tedious of all discourses are on the subject of the Supreme Being" (Journal, 1836). "The word miracle, as pronounced by Christian churches, gives a false impression; it is a monster. It is not one with the blowing clover and the falling rain" (Address to Harvard Divinity College, July 15, 1838). He demolished the right wing hypocrites of his era in his essay "Worship": ". . . the louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons" (Conduct of Life, 1860). "I hate this shallow Americanism which hopes to get rich by credit, to get knowledge by raps on midnight tables, to learn the economy of the mind by phrenology, or skill without study, or mastery without apprenticeship" (Self-Reliance). "The first and last lesson of religion is, 'The things that are seen are temporal; the things that are not seen are eternal.' It puts an affront upon nature" (English Traits , 1856). "The god of the cannibals will be a cannibal, of the crusaders a crusader, and of the merchants a merchant." (Civilization, 1862). He influenced generations of Americans, from his friend Henry David Thoreau to John Dewey, and in Europe, Friedrich Nietzsche, who takes up such Emersonian themes as power, fate, the uses of poetry and history, and the critique of Christianity. D. 1882.
Ralph Waldo Emerson was his son and Waldo Emerson Forbes, his grandson.
The best of Emerson's rather wordy writing survives as epigrams, such as the famous: "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines." Other one- (and two-) liners include: "As men's prayers are a disease of the will, so are their creeds a disease of the intellect" (Self-Reliance, 1841). "The most tedious of all discourses are on the subject of the Supreme Being" (Journal, 1836). "The word miracle, as pronounced by Christian churches, gives a false impression; it is a monster. It is not one with the blowing clover and the falling rain" (Address to Harvard Divinity College, July 15, 1838). He demolished the right wing hypocrites of his era in his essay "Worship": ". . . the louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons" (Conduct of Life, 1860). "I hate this shallow Americanism which hopes to get rich by credit, to get knowledge by raps on midnight tables, to learn the economy of the mind by phrenology, or skill without study, or mastery without apprenticeship" (Self-Reliance). "The first and last lesson of religion is, 'The things that are seen are temporal; the things that are not seen are eternal.' It puts an affront upon nature" (English Traits , 1856). "The god of the cannibals will be a cannibal, of the crusaders a crusader, and of the merchants a merchant." (Civilization, 1862). He influenced generations of Americans, from his friend Henry David Thoreau to John Dewey, and in Europe, Friedrich Nietzsche, who takes up such Emersonian themes as power, fate, the uses of poetry and history, and the critique of Christianity. D. 1882.
Ralph Waldo Emerson was his son and Waldo Emerson Forbes, his grandson.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
June 25, 2012
Essential read for every thinking human.
September 21, 2015
Nice little book. Some of the quotes I just did not see how they related to that chapters topic. But a nice little book overall.
May 15, 2020
Sometimes I inherit books. I'm not sure where I got this one. Probably from my mom. It's a book of quotes. On the title page it says these are, "Thoughts collected from the essays and journals." It doesn't list an editor. There is no table of contents. The quotes are under several headings: "On Self-Reliance; Transcendentalism; There Is a thread...; Nature as Beauty; Love & Friendship; America & Politics; Sobering Realities; The Creative Act; Signs of Greatness; On R.W.E. Himself; and Religions & Sects." The title made me think I'd be reading an essay on Emerson's feelings about man and God. This is not an essay of that focus.
My first time reading through, no particular quote jumped out as deeply meaningful or significant to me. Even the illustrations are small versions of the cover, all green and black, just with different leaves almost resembling leaf rubbings. I think they're lithographs.
Maybe like all quote books, this is the kind of thing to open, read, and ponder at random, not to mostly read all at once during commercials of an exciting, long TV show like I did.
As I flip through it again and read here and there, I'm finding a few insightful quotes. I've read better, more well-organized quote books.
My first time reading through, no particular quote jumped out as deeply meaningful or significant to me. Even the illustrations are small versions of the cover, all green and black, just with different leaves almost resembling leaf rubbings. I think they're lithographs.
Maybe like all quote books, this is the kind of thing to open, read, and ponder at random, not to mostly read all at once during commercials of an exciting, long TV show like I did.
As I flip through it again and read here and there, I'm finding a few insightful quotes. I've read better, more well-organized quote books.
December 31, 2023
meh, sorry
February 18, 2023
A quite interesting collection of thought provoking (if a bit disjointed) ideas but holding an irrefutable seed of truth in many of the passages.
Read
January 14, 2010Essays and Journals by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews