Volume 1
1837 - 1847
As the least drop of wine tinges the whole goblet, so the least particle of truth colors our whole life. It is never isolated, or simply added as treasure to our stock. When any real progress is made, we unlearn and learn anew what we thought we knew before.
Such is beauty ever, - neither here nor there, now nor then, - neither in Rome nor in Athens, but wherever there is a soul to admire. If I seek her elsewhere because I do not find her at home, my search will prove a fruitless one.
Silence is the communing of a conscious soul with itself. If the soul attend for a moment to its own infinity, then and there is silence. She is audible to all men, at all times, in all places, and if we will we may always hearken to her admonitions.
Thales was the first of the Greeks who taught that souls are immortal, and it takes equal wisdom to discern this old fact to-day. What the first philosopher taught, the last will have to repeat. The world makes no progress.
There is something proudly thrilling in the thought that this obedience to conscience and trust in God, which is so solemnly preached in extremities and arduous circumstances, is only to retreat to one's self, and rely on our own strength. In trivial circumstances I find myself sufficient to myself, and in the most momentous I have no ally but myself, and must silently put by their harm by my own strength, as I did the former. As my own hand bent aside the willow in my path, so must my single arm put to flight the devil and his angels. God is not our ally when we shrink, and neuter when we are bold. If by trusting in God you lose any particle of your vigor, trust in Him no longer. When you trust, do not lay aside your armor, but put it on and buckle it tighter. If by reliance on the gods I have disbanded one of my forces, then it was poor policy. I had better have retained the most inexperienced tyro who had straggled into camp, and let go the heavenly alliance. I cannot afford to relax discipline because God is on my side, for He is on the side of discipline. And if the gods were only the heavens I fought under, I would not care if they stormed or were calm. I do not want a countenance but a help. And there is more of God and divine help in a man's little finger than in idle prayer and trust.
The snow falls on no two trees alike, but the forms it assumes are as various as those of the twigs and leaves which receive it. They are, as it were, predetermined by the genius of the tree. So one divine spirit descends on all, but bears a peculiar fruit in each. The divinity subsides on all men, as the snowflakes settle on the fields and ledges and takes the form of the various clefts and surfaces on which it lodges.
The Sphinx hints that in the ages her secret is kept, but in the annihilation of ages alone it is revealed. So far from solving the problem of life, Time only serves to propose and keep it in. Time waits but for its solution to become eternity. [Commenting on Emerson's poem "The Sphinx"].
Great thoughts hallow any labor. Today I earned seventy-five cents heaving manure out of a pen, and made a good bargain of it. If the ditcher muses the while how he may live uprightly, the ditching spade and turf knife may be engraved on the coat of arms of his posterity.
The fickle person is he that does not know what is true or right absolutely, - who has not an ancient wisdom for a lifetime, but a new prudence for every hour.
Let us know and conform only to the fashions of eternity.
There is but one obligation, and that is the obligation to obey the highest dictate.
The sublime sentences of Menu carry us back to a time when purification and sacrifice and self-devotion had a place in the faith of men, and were not as now superstition. They contain a subtle and refined philosophy also, such as in these times is not accompanied with so lofty and pure a devotion.
I know of no redeeming qualities in me but a sincere love for some things, and when I am reproved I have to fall back on to this ground. This is my argument in reserve for all cases. My love is invulnerable. Meet me on that ground and you will find me strong. When I am condemned, and condemn myself utterly, I think straightway, "But I rely on my love for some things." Therein I am whole and entire. Therein I am God-propped.
One does not soon learn the trade of life. That one may work out a true life requires more art and delicate skill than any other work.
I wish I could be as still as God is. I can recall to my mind the stillest summer hours, in which the grasshopper sings over the mulleins, and there is a valor in that time the memory of which is armor that can laugh at any blow of fortune.
If we were wise enough, we should see to what virtue we were indebted for any happier moment we might have, nor doubt we had earned this at some time.
What, then can I do to hasten that other time, or that space where there shall be not time, and these things be more a living part of my life -- where there will be no discords in my life?
The Vedas and their Angas are not so ancient as my serenest contemplations.
In prosperity I remember God, or memory is one with consciousness; in adversity I remember my own elevations, and only hope to see God again.
Why, God, did you include me in your great scheme? Will you not make me a partner at last? Did it need there should be a conscious material?
I just looked up at a fine twinkling star and thought that a voyager whom I know now many days sail from this coast, might possibly be looking up at the same star with me. The stars are the apexes of what triangles! There is always the possibility - the possibility, I say - of being all, or remaining a particle, in the universe.
