Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes About Learning

Essays: First Series, “Friendship” (1841), verified against Project Gutenberg #2944 and the page-numbered 1907 Merrill/Turpin Essays witness in Project Gutenberg #16643, printed page 117. Emerson says “Our intellectual and active powers increase with our affection” before illustrating the claim with a scholar who finds thoughts and language when writing to a friend; it remains literary-philosophical observation rather than a quantified psychological law.

Essay “Progress of Culture,” later collected in Letters and Social Aims.

The American Scholar; Emerson asks what the right use of books is and answers that they should inspire.

The American Scholar; Emerson argues that books should awaken independent thought rather than replace it.

The American Scholar, in Emerson’s discussion of the influence and proper use of books.

The Conduct of Life; the line connects knowledge of life with accumulated experience and the lessons that experience makes intelligible.