Ralph Waldo Emerson's Birthday

This Day in History: May 25, 1803

Essayist, philosopher, and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson was born in Boston on May 25, 1803.
A popular, if unconventional preacher, young Emerson's sermons consisted of personal reflections on spirituality and virtue. He avoided expounding doctrine or engaging in scriptural exegesis. Increasingly dissatisfied with traditional protestant theology, Emerson resigned from the ministry in 1832. By the end of the decade, however, he was the leading exponent of transcendentalism, a philosophy that maintains the universality of creation, upholds the intrinsic goodness of man, and grounds truth in personal insight.

"We will walk on our own feet; we will work with our own hands; we will speak our own minds...A nation of men will for the first time exist, because each believes himself inspired by the Divine Soul which also inspires all men."

From the 1830s on, Emerson was a member of the transcendentalist community that not only shared radical religious views, but also embraced forward-looking social reforms including abolition, temperance, and women's suffrage.

A prolific writer and thinker, his collected essays earned international acclaim, and, for decades, Emerson remained a popular lecturer.

Source: Library of Congress & Wikipedia.org