The one thing in the world, of value, is the active soul

Books are the best of things, well used; abused, among the worst. What is the right use? What is the one end, which all means go to effect? They are for nothing but to inspire. I had better never see a book, than to be warped by its attraction clean out of my own orbit, and made a satellite instead of a system. The one thing in the world, of value, is the active soul. This every man is entitled to; this every man contains within him, although, in almost all men, obstructed, and as yet unborn. The soul active sees absolute truth; and utters truth, or creates. In this action, it is genius; not the privilege of here and there a favorite, but the sound estate of every man. In its essence, it is progressive. The book, the college, the school of art, the institution of any kind, stop with some past utterance of genius. This is good, say they, – let us hold by this. They pin me down. They look backward and not forward. But genius looks forward: the eyes of man are set in his forehead, not in his hindhead: man hopes: genius creates. Whatever talents may be, if the man create not, the pure efflux of the Deity is not his; – cinders and smoke there may be, but not yet flame. There are creative manners, there are creative actions, and creative words; manners, actions, words, that is, indicative of no custom or authority, but springing spontaneous from the mind’s own sense of good and fair.

by Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803 – April 27, 1882)
from The American Scholar
An Oration Delivered Before the Phi Beta Kappa Society, at Cambridge, August 31, 1837
image – tibchris

Man Hopes; Genius Creates

This excerpt is from a lecture titled The American Scholar, given by Ralph Waldo Emerson to Harvard’s Phi Beta Kappa Society. Since 1932 The American Scholar has been a quarterly publication of the Phi Beta Kappa Society. Inspired by Ralph Waldo Emerson’s famous speech, the magazine aspires to “Emerson’s ideals of independent thinking, self-knowledge, and a commitment to the affairs of the world as well as to books, history, and science.”

Emerson had a way of calling a spade a spade, Victorian style. I love this: “genius looks forward: the eyes of man are set in his forehead, not in his hindhead.”

That’s one way to tell yourself to buck up and notice the future!

Tags: Change, Learning, Values
Posted in Ralph Waldo Emerson

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.