Ralph W. Emerson was a profound American Transcendentalist essayist and poet from the 19th century, he was the father and founder of American Transcendentalism. Furthermore he was the more remarkable philosopher of his century, he was more a philosopher than a literary person. Transcendentalism defined "reason" as the highest human faculty, the individual's innate capacity to grasp beauty and truth by allowing full play to the intellect and emotions. The movement emerged from a small …showed first 75 words of 1144 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1144 total…themes: "We look too much abroad. . . . Let us become real and true Americans." In his address to Harvard, he asked, "Why should not we have a poetry and philosophy of insight and not of tradition and a religion by revelation to us? Let us demand our own works and laws and worship." For him the most important thing as he explained in “Self-Reliance” was “Insist on yourself; never imitate [...] Every great man is a unique.”