Post II: Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson was a very inspirational man when it comes to the thought of Transcendentalism. Ralph Waldo Emerson was a very famous essayist, lecturer and poet. Ralph Waldo Emerson lead the transcendentalism era as well as many others who helped him. Ralph Waldo Emerson is very well known for his short story Nature and for starting the transcendentalism period in the 1900's.

Optimism: Optimism means to be faithful and confident in what the future holds. Optimistic people are positive and have a amazing attitudes about life. Ralph Waldo Emerson introduced and created a more in depth  understanding of this concept. “Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.” is a quote that Ralph Waldo Emerson had once said. He was a very optimistic person and he went everyday of his life treating like it was the best day he would ever have. In this quote he is telling other people to engrave it into your mind to try and make everyday the best day ever.  He treats everything he ever does like it is always possible and never impossible. He also doesn't let other people get in the way of that. Another amazing quote by our famous Thomas Edison was “Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try one more time.” In this quote Edison is trying tell people that everyone can give up, it is probably one of the easiest things to do for most people, but to have that feeling of giving up but not giving up is a whole different thing. It it is hard to keep yourself going and to push yourself to the very limit.

Self-Reliance: Self-Reliance means to trust in yourself and and your own power. It is better to rely on yourself and trust in your own ideas rather than anyone's else's. “Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can't practice any other virtue consistently.” said Maya Angelou. To not have courage in yourself is a huge part of self-reliance. Not have confidence in yourself or in you ideas is a perfect example of not showing self-reliance. As I am watching the republican debate at my house I actually noticed some self-reliance in Carly Fiorina. “If you want something to get done, ask a women to do it” is what she had just said. This represents a lot of self-reliance because she believes in her power and she believes in herself. In order to be in that sort of position, to be president or a representative, at any time you have to have self-reliance and believe in yourself.  Emerson proves this by saying “Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.” This means to trust yourself and maybe some other people will just so happen agree with you. You will never know until you trust in your own self and share to the world your ideas.  He also wrote a passage about self-reliance, that is where I received the quote from.

Individualism: Individualism  means to basically be self-reliant. You become very used to being independent and many believe that individualism open the door to have freedom of action. Ralph Waldo Emerson shows this a lot as well. He demonstrates this through this quote “Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” Emerson said this to tell people to not follow the footsteps that others have once taken, but to make new ones and guide people in the direction that you want to go.

Intuition: Intuition means to understand something immediately and be able to look beyond that as well. Usually people just stick to what they know and people don't wish to dive deeper in to what could not only be something new to you, but many people. If Thomas Edison would have never found his intuition we would have never had a light bulb, or at least we wouldn't have one until someone else found that intuition. Albert Einstein once said, "The only real valuable thing is intuition." In all of the people I have heard if Albert Einstein had the most intuition ever. He was not the brightest kid ever, but eventually he moved past that and realized that he can really do great things for the world. He also trusted his gut because that is what his gut told him that he could do. It takes a long time for people to be able to trust themselves though and listen to what there gut is telling them whether it is for the good or the bad.