every spirit builds itself a house; and beyond its house, a world; and beyond its world, a heaven. know then, that the world exists for you. for you the phenomenon is perfect. what we are, that only can we see. all that adam had, all that caesar could, you have and can do. adam called his house, heaven and earth; caesar called his house, rome; you perhaps call yours a cobbler's trade; a hundred acres of ploughed land; or a scholar's garret. yet line for line and point for point, your dominion is as great as theirs, though without fine names. build, therefore, your own world.

-nature, ralph waldo emerson-





it’s certainly not enough to simply have an idea. we must live by our ideas and promote them if they are to have any real worth. of what value is “freedom” if we choose to live like slaves or are forced to submit to other’s whims? it’s only when such an idea is put to the test, when, for instance, we allow those we disagree with to express their ideas publicly that we can test the worth of such a concept. when we can actually see that the best ideas emerge from the free exchange of ideas, then we see the true worth of freedom, and not until.



emerson argues that thinking and acting interact with each other, reinforcing each other: the mind now thinks; now acts; and each fit reproduces the other. when the artist has exhausted his materials, when the fancy no longer paints, when thoughts are no longer apprehended, and books are a weariness, -- he has always the resource to live. character is higher than intellect. thinking is the function. living is the functionary.

-uses of great men, ralph waldo emerson-





yet all his adult life he fought furiously, in the best transcendental spirit, to maintain his independence, and applied himself to working away from abstract doctrine toward passionate appropriation of the concrete.

-written about henry david thoreau-