Transcendentalist Thoughts

Directions:
- Pick a quote from a Transcendentalist writer below. Find one that you like and can make a personal connection to.
- On the front of your computer paper, draw a visual representation of your quote. Get creative with this – use symbolism, color, etc. to reflect the tone of the author’s quote. The Transcendentalists were very abstract, so be sure to reflect this in your art. As this is a visual representation, it should NOT include any words.
- On the back of your paper, answer the following questions in 3-4 complete sentences each:
- Which quote did you choose? What does this quote mean to you? Summarize it in your own words.
- How does this quote connect to Transcendentalism? How does it demonstrate the tenets of Transcendentalism? Be specific and provide text evidence.
- Why did you choose this quote? What connection does it have to your life?
Robert Frost:
“The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep.”
“Two roads diverged in a wood and I – I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”
“Half the world is composed of people who have something to say and can’t, and the other half who have nothing to say and keep on saying it.”
“The best way out is always through.”
“In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.”
“Freedom lies in being bold.”
“You can be a rank insider as well as a rank outsider.”
“I hold it to be the inalienable right of anybody to go to hell in his own way.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson:
“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”
“What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you.”
“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”
“Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow.”
“Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you.”
“Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail.”
“To be great is to be misunderstood.”
“Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything beautiful, for beauty is God’s handwriting.”
Walt Whitman:
“Keep your face always toward the sunshine – and shadows will fall behind you.”
“I celebrate myself, and sing myself.”
“Whatever satisfies the soul is truth.”
“Oh while I live, to be the ruler of life, not a slave, to meet life as a powerful conqueror, and nothing exterior to me will ever take command of me.”
“I exist as I am; that is enough.”
“Let your soul stand cool and composed before a million universes.”
“Nothing endures but personal qualities.”
Henry David Thoreau:
“It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.”
“Wealth is the ability to fully experience life.”
“The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.”
“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you have imagined. As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler.”
“Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.”
“You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment.”
“Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed, and in such desperate enterprises? If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.”
“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”
“Not only must we be good, but we must also be good for something.”