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Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, 'Circles', 1841

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The sentence comes near the end of 'Circles', an essay in Emerson's Essays: First Series (1841). Its central image is that a larger circle can always be drawn around any circle: every truth, habit or achievement can be outgrown. People grow, Emerson argues, when something carries them beyond themselves and past their usual caution. Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882), a former minister from Concord, Massachusetts, led Transcendentalism, an American movement that trusted personal intuition and nature over tradition. His essay 'Self-Reliance' appeared in the same book.

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Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Circles”, 1841

Söz, Emerson'ın Essays: First Series (Denemeler: Birinci Dizi, 1841) kitabındaki “Circles” (Çemberler) denemesinin sonlarına doğru geçer. Denemenin ana imgesi şudur: Her çemberin çevresine daha büyük bir çember çizilebilir; her gerçeğin, alışkanlığın ya da başarının ötesinde daha genişi vardır. Emerson'a göre insan, kendini aşıp her zamanki temkinini unuttuğunda büyür. Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) eskiden vaizlik yapmıştı ve Massachusetts'teki Concord'da yaşıyordu. Geleneğe değil, kişisel sezgiye ve doğaya güvenen Amerikan Transandantalizm akımının önderiydi. Ünlü “Self-Reliance” (Kendine Güven) denemesi de aynı kitaptadır.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Ralph Waldo Emerson
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