For The Lonely Thinker
These quotes are for all those who, like me, find themselves isolated from general society because of our tendency to ponder life more seriously than most, causing our desires and interests to differ greatly from those of the majority. As we are often told, we “think too much.”
The first one is an excerpt from a speech titled “The American Scholar” given by Ralph Waldo Emerson at Harvard University in 1837.
Any emphasis is added by me.
“I have now spoken of the education of the scholar by nature, by books, and by action. It remains to say somewhat of his duties.
They are such as become ‘Man Thinking.’ They may all be comprised in self-trust. The office of the scholar is to cheer, to raise, and to guide men by showing them facts amidst appearances. He plies the slow, un-honored, and unpaid task of observation. Flamsteed and Herschel, in their glazed observatories, may catalogue the stars with the praise of all men, and the results being splendid and useful, honor is sure. But he, in his private observatory, cataloguing obscure and nebulous stars of the human mind, which as yet no man has thought of as such – watching days and months sometimes for a few facts; correcting still his old records; must relinquish display and immediate fame. In the long period of his preparation he must betray often an ignorance and shiftlessness in popular arts, incurring the disdain of the able who shoulder him aside. Long he must stammer in his speech; often forego the living for the dead. Worse yet, he must accept – how OFTEN! – poverty and solitude. For the ease and pleasure of treading the old road, accepting the fashions, the education, the religion of society, he takes the cross of making his own, and, of course, the self-accusation, the faint heart, the frequent uncertainty and loss of time, which are the nettles and tangling vines in the way of the self-relying and self-directed; and the state of virtual hostility in which he seems to stand to society, and especially educated society. For all this loss and scorn, what offset? He is to find consolation in exercising the highest functions of human nature. He is one who raises himself from private considerations and breathes and lives on public and illustrious thoughts. He is the world’s eye. He is the world’s heart. He is to resist the vulgar prosperity that retrogrades ever to barbarism, by preserving and communicating heroic sentiments, noble biographies, melodious verse, and the conclusions of history. Whatsoever oracles the human heart, in all emergencies, in all solemn hours, has uttered as its commentary on the world of actions – these he shall receive and impart. And whatsoever new verdict Reason from her inviolable seat pronounces on the passing men and events of today – this he shall hear and promulgate.”
The following is an excerpt from one of a series of letters written by Henry David Thoreau to an acquaintance, Harrison Blake, during their correspondence from March of 1848 to May 1861.
It is from the letter dated May 21, 1856.
“As for the dispute about solitude and society any comparison is impertinent. It is an idling down on the plain at the base of a mountain instead of climbing steadily to its top. Of course you will be glad of all the society you can get to go up with. ‘Will you go to glory with me?’ is the burden of the song. I love society so much that I swallowed it all at a gulp – i.e. all that came in my way. It is not that we love to be alone, but that we love to soar, and when we do soar, the company grows thinner & thinner till there is none at all. It is either the Tribune on the plain, a sermon on the mount, or a very private ECSTACY still higher up. We are not the less to aim at the summits, though the multitude does not ascend them. Use all the society that will abet you. But perhaps I do not enter into the spirit of your talk.”
One from the Buddha:
“If on the journey of life a man can find a wise and intelligent friend who is good and self-controlled, let him go with that traveler; and in joy and recollection let them overcome the dangers of the journey.
But if on the journey of life a man cannot find a wise and intelligent friend who is good and self-controlled, let him travel alone, like a king who has left his country, or like a great elephant alone in the forest.
For it is better to go alone on the path of life rather than to have a fool for a companion. With few wishes and few cares, and leaving all sins behind, let a man travel alone, like a great elephant alone in the forest.” – The Dhammapada
The following is a January 29, 1839 entry in Henry David Thoreau’s journal:
“The social condition of genius is the same in all ages. AEchylus was undoubtedly alone and without sympathy in his simple reverence for the mystery of the universe.”