Dec 29, 2009
The catalyst for most of Emerson’s finest writings was his search for a liberating personal philosophy.
Ordained a minister, Emerson resigned his pastorate at a Boston Unitarian church because he believed that conventional religions told their parishioners what to think and how to act rather than instructing them how to use their own divinely inspired “moral sentiments.” He believed that only through this innate moral sense could one adequately meet one’s most important ethical responsibility: self-reliance.
Failure to follow one’s...
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