Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes on Nature
Nature was the seedbed of Emerson's whole philosophy, and the quotes gathered here show how he understood it. For Emerson the natural world is a source of insight rather than mere scenery: it is the wise man's true home, his hearth the earth and his hall the azure dome, and even a weed is only a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered. He saw a continuity between nature and the works of the human spirit, holding that a genuine work of art has as much reason for being as the earth and the sun. Emerson also found in nature the substance of religion itself, arguing that natural religion supplies the facts that popular creeds merely disguise. Drawn from his essays and poems, these passages present nature as the Transcendentalist's primary teacher.
Quotes
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“What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.”
Fortune of the Republic (1878) -
“Go where he will, the wise man is at home, His hearth the earth, his hall the azure dome.”
Poems(1847) | Wood-notes , st. 3 -
“A ruddy drop of manly blood The surging sea outweighs, The world uncertain comes and goes; The lover rooted stays.”
May-Day and Other Pieces(1867) | Friendship -
“God may forgive sins, he said, but awkwardness has no forgiveness in heaven or earth.”
Society and Solitude(1870) | Society and Solitude -
“Every genuine work of art has as much reason for being as the earth and the sun.”
Society and Solitude(1870) | Art -
“A masterpiece of art has in the mind a fixed place in the chain of being, as much as a plant or a crystal.”
Society and Solitude(1870) | Art -
“I should as soon think of swimming across Charles River when I wish to go to Boston, as of reading all my books in originals when I have them rendered for me in my mother tongue.”
Society and Solitude(1870) | Books -
“Natural religion supplies still all the facts which are disguised under the dogma of popular creeds. The progress of religion is steadily to its identity with morals.”
Pearls of Thought(1881) | p. 223