"The American Scholar" by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Post date: Nov 21, 2012 1:20:24 PM

Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803-1882

Ralph Waldo Emerson is arguably the most influential American writer of the nineteenth century. "The American Scholar" is one of his formal Harvard addresses to the Phi Beta Kappa Society in 1837 on the American Scholar. The followings are some of the famous quotes from "The American Scholar":

"In this distribution of functions, the scholar is the delegated intellect. In the right state, he is,Man Thinking. In the degenerate state, when the victim of society, he tends to become a mere thinker, or, still worse, the parrot of other men's thinking."

"Books are the best of things, well used; abused, among the worst. [...] They are for nothing but to inspire."

"To create,---to create,---is the proof of a divine presence."

"Action is with the scholar subordinate, but it is essential. Without it, he is not yet man. Without it, thought can never ripen into truth."

Please see the attached ppt file for further discussions on "The American Scholar" in Chinese.

The American Scholar一文是美國文豪愛默森所發表的對美國文人學者的看法，其中有許多發人深省的見解，值得我們一起來探討與理解。

附件ppt檔案為師大華研所研究生梅偉強於實驗室會議時的簡報，和大家分享，謝謝！