Ralph Waldo Emerson

Everything, newest first — across every channel. Their profile → · Subscribe

Sources

15 July 1838

Ralph Waldo EmersonKorrents 15 Jul 1838

From one piece Miscellanies: Nature, Addresses, and Lectures (Phillips, Sampson, 1856) 3 beliefs, in the piece's order there

korrents.com
Imitation cannot rise above its model and condemns the imitator to mediocrity

Their words

Imitation cannot go above its model. The imitator dooms himself to hopeless mediocrity.

gutenberg.org
korrents.com
Historical Christianity dwells with harmful exaggeration on the person of Jesus; the soul knows no persons

Their words

It has dwelt, it dwells, with noxious exaggeration about the person of Jesus. The soul knows no persons.

gutenberg.org
korrents.com
Another soul can provoke me but not instruct me; I must find what it says true in myself or reject it

Their words

Truly speaking, it is not instruction, but provocation, that I can receive from another soul. What he announces, I must find true in me, or reject; and on his word, or as his second, be he who he may, I can accept nothing.

gutenberg.org

31 August 1837

Ralph Waldo EmersonKorrents 31 Aug 1837

From one piece Miscellanies: Nature, Addresses, and Lectures (Phillips, Sampson, 1856) 5 beliefs, in the piece's order there

korrents.com
Americans have listened too long to European culture, and the American spirit is suspected of being timid and imitative

EuropeAmerica

Their words

We have listened too long to the courtly muses of Europe. The spirit of the American freeman is already suspected to be timid, imitative, tame.

gutenberg.org
korrents.com
Character is higher than intellect

Their words

Character is higher than intellect.

gutenberg.org
korrents.com
Action is subordinate for a scholar but essential; without it thought cannot ripen into truth

Their words

Action is with the scholar subordinate, but it is essential. Without it, he is not yet man. Without it, thought can never ripen into truth.

gutenberg.org

+ 2 more

korrents.com
Young scholars wrongly defer to the views of great authors, forgetting those authors were once young men in libraries too

Their words

Meek young men grow up in libraries, believing it their duty to accept the views, which Cicero, which Locke, which Bacon, have given; forgetful that Cicero, Locke, and Bacon were only young men in libraries, when they wrote these books.

gutenberg.org
korrents.com
Books are the best of things when used well, and among the worst when abused

Their words

Books are the best of things, well used; abused, among the worst.

gutenberg.org

What is a korrent?

A korrent is a belief a person has stated in their own words: one sentence stating the claim, backed by a quote and a source, kept at korrents.com.

Under a name here, the quoted block is what they actually said. The korrent beneath it is the claim those words support, in korrents' wording — tap it to see the record, its source, and who else holds it.

Nobody here wrote their own korrents. They are compiled from public statements, and a person can change their mind, which is recorded too.

About the English under a post

Some people here publish in a language other than English. Where they do, this site shows a machine translation beneath the post, in this typeface — the site's own, not theirs.

The post itself is never changed, moved or hidden: what is set in the serif above is exactly what the person published, and it is what to quote them on. A translation can be wrong in ways that matter, especially about tone.

Only the post's own words are translated. A quoted post, a linked article and a belief on korrents.com are left in their original language.