30 Transcendentalism Quotes To Help Budding Philosophers To Reflect On Life

During the 19th century, a group of writers together adhered to the idealistic system of defining man as an accumulation of emotions, spirituality, and beliefs that revealed the deepest truths of man.

The three principle characteristics of transcendentalism are Simplistic Living, Non-Conformity, and Spirituality. Simple Living directs the ease of taking life as it is every day and not to ask more but do more for each living being.

It teaches one to be more content with their surroundings. Non-conformity teaches you to not give in to the herd mentality that drives almost all humans to ruins. It advises one to choose a higher and more noble path than what society offers it. Spirituality directs the individual to look inward for all answers he seeks. It is the only manner through which one can be capable of transcending above the ordinary plane of thoughts and ascend to a clearer understanding of life. It makes you accept how everyone no matter what their age has the ability to learn and grow through each hardship and evolve into a more compassionate and ideal living creature.

Ralph Waldo Emerson on love and quotes from Emerson's nature essays contain profound knowledge on transcendentalism. His work along with that of Henry David Thoreau have set the path for every learner who has set themself on the journey of transcendentalism. Randolph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau were among the most famous transcendentalists. Margaret Fuller was the woman pioneer in the field of Transcendentalism with her book The Dial that was used as a proper text on transcendentalism from 1840-1844. She was later followed by Elizabeth Palmer Peabody who helped her to edit The Dial and also Louisa May Alcott who wrote the novel Little Women.

Nature transcendentalism quotes have become quite popular and as a result, you could also take a look at such quotes by Emerson and Thoreau, success quotes by Ralph Waldo Emerson, David Thoreau quotes and Ralph Waldo Emerson friendship quotes.

If you like this article on Transcendentalists quotes then you may want to look up our other articles on Wittgenstein quotes and Locke quotes. You will find them equally inspiring and informative so go on check them out.

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Some extremely famous quotes by Ralph Waldo Emerson that will motivate you to live the life you are intended to live. These Ralph Waldo Emerson quotes on life will help you in all aspects.

1. “To be great is to be misunderstood.”

- 'Self-Reliance and Other Essays' (1993).

2. “Nothing can bring you peace but yourself.”

- 'Self-Reliance and Other Essays' (1993).

3. “I like the silent church before the service begins, better than any preaching.”

- 'Self-Reliance and Other Essays' (1993).

4. “Be yourself; no base imitator of another, but your best self. There is something which you can do better than another. Listen to the inward voice and bravely obey that. Do the things at which you are great, not what you were never made for.”

- 'Self-Reliance and Other Essays' (1993).

5. “Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist.”

- 'Self-Reliance and Other Essays' (1993).

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Below we've some of the best Emerson quotes from 'Nature' addresses and lectures. We have chosen some of the rarest Emerson quotes about love, life, and everything in between. These are some of the most inspirational quotes by Ralph Waldo Emerson.

6. “The health of the eye seems to demand a horizon. We are never tired, so long as we can see far enough.”

- Ralph Waldo Emerson.

7. “The world is emblematic. Parts of speech are metaphors because the whole of nature is a metaphor of the human mind.”

- Ralph Waldo Emerson.

8. “Have mountains, and waves, and skies, no significance but what we consciously give them, when we employ them as emblems of our thoughts?”

- Ralph Waldo Emerson.

9. “The lover of nature is he whose inward and outward senses are still truly adjusted to each other; who has retained the spirit of infancy even into the era of manhood.”

- Ralph Waldo Emerson.

10. “In the woods, we return to reason and faith. There I feel that nothing can befall me in life,—no disgrace, no calamity, (leaving me my eyes,) which nature cannot repair.”

- 'Nature' (1836).

11. “But if a man would be alone, let him look at the stars. The rays that come from those heavenly worlds, will separate between him and vulgar things.”

- Ralph Waldo Emerson.

12. “To the attentive eye, each moment of the year has its own beauty, and in the same field, it beholds, every hour, a picture which was never seen before, and which shall never be seen again.”

- Ralph Waldo Emerson.

13. "Adopt the pace of nature, her secret is patience."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson.

14. "Every particular in nature, a leaf, a drop, a crystal, a moment of time is related to the whole and partakes of the perfection of the whole."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson.

15. "Nature is the incarnation of thought. The world is the mind precipitated."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Go through the list for some self-reliance quotes and quotes about transcendentalism by Henry David Thoreau.

16. "Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life so. Aim above morality. Be not simply good, be good for something."

- Henry David Thoreau's letter to Harrison Blake (1848).

17. "You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island of opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land; there is no other life but this."

- Henry David Thoreau's Journal (1859).

18. "Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you’ve imagined."

- Henry David Thoreau.

19. "If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours."

- 'Walden', (1854).

20. "The cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run."

- Henry David Thoreau.

21. "If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment."

- Henry David Thoreau.

22. "Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influence of the earth."

- Henry David Thoreau.

23. "Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake."

- Henry David Thoreau.

24. "If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them."

- Henry David Thoreau.

25. "Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth."

- Henry David Thoreau.

Here's a list of some more Henry David Thoreau transcendentalism quotes. Take a look at this inspiring list of transcendentalism quotes and see if they have a sense in your life.

26. "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately. "

- Henry David Thoreau.

27. "We commonly do not remember that it is. after all, the first person that is speaking."

- Henry David Thoreau.

28. "In most books, the I, of first person, is omitted, in this it will be retained; that, in respect to egotism, is the main difference."

- 'Walden', (1854).

29. "I should not talk so much about myself if there were anybody else whom I knew as well."

- Henry David Thoreau.

30. "Where yesterday was cold gray ice there lay the transparent pond already calm and full of hope as in a summer evening, reflecting a summer evening sky in its bosom, though none was visible overhead, as if it had intelligence with some remote horizon."

- 'Walden', (1854).

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of great family-friendly quotes for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for Transcendentalism quotes then why not take a look at mind over quotes, or spiritual growth quotes.