Examples Of Transcendentalism In Civil Disobedience

“Self-Reliance” by Ralph Waldo Emerson and “Civil Disobedience” by Henry David Thoreau are two works that convey the ideas of Transcendentalism. In “Self-Reliance” Emerson says, “Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.” He is stating that nothing is as important as a person’s own way of thinking and beliefs. Instead of listening to other people’s minds, people rightfully should make decisions based on their sacred thoughts. In “Civil Disobedience” Thoreau writes, “That government is best which governs least.” He is reinforcing the fact that people perform the best when not being told what to do and instead, following their instincts. If a government is over-involved in the people’s lives, it takes away the ability for the

Even though the rest of the students love the lecture, the speaker becomes bored as he learns about the stars using charts and graphs rather than going outside and looking up at them. While the rest of his society is sitting and listening intently to the professor, the speaker chooses to learn from himself by leaving and going outside. This decision causes him to show many parts of transcendentalism. The more apparent part is demonstrated when he leaves class, following his intuition, instead of sticking with the crowd. A different part of transcendentalism is demonstrated when the speaker decides to learn using nature. Transcendentalists often believe it is best to completely leave their old society behind and go into nature in order to create their own personal society with their own ideologies. The speaker does this by leaving his old class behind and going outside to connect with nature. Overall the speaker acts as a transcendentalist in more than one way by joining with nature and disregarding his class to follow his