Ralph Waldo Emerson traced a common thread running throughout English literature.
In English Traits (1856), American essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson set himself to examine what it was that made English literature so characteristically English. He came to the conclusion that it was a fondness for robust, grounded language, and for descriptions and ideas that were similarly plain and unaffected.
Ralph Waldo Emerson wondered why New Yorkers elected to Congress the kind of man they would turn out of their own homes.
American essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson was unimpressed with the quality of the Representatives that the people of New York sent to Congress. They were the kind of men most people would banish from their homes, but New Yorkers were quite happy to send them to the House if it meant their Party secured a majority and dipped into the pork barrel.
The people who oil the wheels of society are not the people who never give offence, they are the people who never take any.
There are those, said American essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson, who feel they can never really open up, even among their friends, for fear of offending someone. Better, he advised, to choose more robust and sympathetic listeners for your little circle. The hero of an open and accepting society is not the man who never gives offence; it is the man who never takes any.
The man who seems frustratingly dull and awkward may shine in other company, and we owe it to him and to ourselves to read the signs.
If someone seems dull and awkward, wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson, that may simply be a warning that he is in the wrong company. We should be alert for such signs, and learn to help people find their own company and comfort zone; for forcing everyone to fit the same mould could be disastrous for them and for us.
American essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson saw the demand for hard evidence as a peculiarly English trait.
American essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) believed that there was no people in Europe so committed to hard, scientific facts than the Victorian English, so unwilling to act until all the evidence is in – a ‘Victorian value’ worth rediscovering today.
American essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson praises the English public for still loving freedom, despite their politicians.
American essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) saw the English as a people much less biased and belligerent than their political masters. Liberty was safe, Emerson believed, while Englishmen still craved not influence abroad, but independence at home.