Emerson

Emerson is well known for his speeches and essays back in the early to late 1800's.  He was also known for being a transcendentalist and talking about transcendentalism.  He had several pieces of work that he had shared with people who would come from all over just to hear about his experiences.  He had written a piece called "Nature"  This piece was about setting off and getting away from society to experience transcendentalism.  One of his quotes was, "Envy is ignorance, Imitation is Suicide."-Ralph Waldo Emerson.  This is an example of self reliance because it is explaining that envying someone is not realizing yourself and your abilities.  But if you imitate someone you might as well not be your own person because you need to venture off the beaten path and come up with your own ideas.  "Trust thyself"-Ralph Waldo Emerson.  This quote may seem simple but it sort of ties in with individuality.  This is an example of intuition because he's sort of saying that you you need to trust your gut and follow what you believe.  This is a good example of intuition also because he's not saying trust someone else he's telling you that you know what is best for you in your mind set."  "Do not follow where the path may lead.  Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."-Ralph Waldo Emerson.  This quote is an example of individualism because Emerson is explaining that you need to take your own path and follow yourself.  You need to be one and do your own thing away from society and the people in the real world.  The past three quotes all sort of tie in together and relate to each other.  The last three themes kind of go hand and hand and have similar concepts to them and thats what I have realized has taken place in transcendentalism.  "Write in your own heart that every day is the best day in the year."-Ralph Waldo Emerson.  This quote is an example of optimism with in transcendentalism because Emerson is sating that you should just tell yourself that it continues to get better and to not let yourself down.  Optimism is keeping your head up and never getting down because life goes on and you can determine if you're going to have a bad day or not by being either optimistic or negative.