As everything that he wrote is more or less worthy of attention, a complete collection of his theories and teachings would be as impossible, as an arrangement of Emerson’s best thoughts, and in any event would ill befit the unpretentious character of this treatise. For his elaborate monographs on religion, morality, society, politics, science, and art, the reader must turn to the complete edition of his writings; for in these pages the attempt will be made to render only a handful of unsorted aphorisms and reflections, taken at random, of which the majority will be found to touch merely upon every-day topics, and that in the lightest possible vein.
With this brief explanation, for which your indulgence is requested, the crier gives way to the thinker.
A woman is to her husband that which her husband has made her.
It is still a question, both in politics and marriage, whether empires are overthrown and happiness destroyed through over-confidence or through too great severity.
A husband risks nothing in affecting to believe his wife, and in patiently holding his tongue. Of all things, silence worries a woman most.
It is, perhaps, only those who believe in God who do good in secret.
Statesmen, thinkers, men who have commanded armies,—in a word, those who are really great,—are natural and unaffected, and their simplicity places one at once on an equality with them.
Comprehension is equality.
Discussion weakens all things.
Genius is intuition.