Miscellanies: Nature, Addresses, and Lectures (Phillips, Sampson, 1856)

The book opens with

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

Their wordsMeek 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.

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Ralph Waldo Emerson did not write this page.

Every claim below was made in this book, quoted word for word and numbered in the order the piece makes them, so you can read it there rather than take our word for it. The book prints chapter headings its extracted text does not preserve, so the claims below are in the book's order but not grouped. The sentence above each quote is our reading of the claim, not their wording. Each quote was checked against a stored copy of the page at build time; where the two differ, the quote is the fact.

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

Their wordsMeek 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.
Our reading
Books are the best of things when used well, and among the worst when abused

Their wordsBooks are the best of things, well used; abused, among the worst.
Our reading
Action is subordinate for a scholar but essential; without it thought cannot ripen into truth

Their wordsAction is with the scholar subordinate, but it is essential. Without it, he is not yet man. Without it, thought can never ripen into truth.
Our reading
Character is higher than intellect

Their wordsCharacter is higher than intellect.
Our reading
Americans have listened too long to European culture, and the American spirit is suspected of being timid and imitative

Their wordsWe have listened too long to the courtly muses of Europe. The spirit of the American freeman is already suspected to be timid, imitative, tame.
Our reading
Another soul can provoke me but not instruct me; I must find what it says true in myself or reject it

Their wordsTruly 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.
Our reading
Historical Christianity dwells with harmful exaggeration on the person of Jesus; the soul knows no persons

Their wordsIt has dwelt, it dwells, with noxious exaggeration about the person of Jesus. The soul knows no persons.
Our reading
Imitation cannot rise above its model and condemns the imitator to mediocrity

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

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