www.galileoscientific.com/images/galileo.jpg
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance
“To be great is to be misunderstood” (pg 538)
This is a picture of a man using a device to look at the stars. I think this picture fits my quote “To be great is to be misunderstood” (pg 358) because many great and brialiant people made discoveries that at the time were considered impossible and absurd. One of them was Galileo. He discovered that the earth rotated around the sun which wasn’t believed at the time because the bible said the earth could not be moved. The church had misinterpreted the bible and intrepreted the bible as the earth was stationary. Galileo stuck behind his findings and it landed him in jail. This quote applies to many other people, especially people that made findings hundreds or thousands of years ago. Findings that weren’t believed to be true. In Emerson’s “Self-Reliance” he lists off some great people that were misunderstood throughout history. He said “Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh” (pg 538). I think this quote explains a transidentalist principle because these people expressed their opinions on the findings and stood behind their beliefs that they were correct. They stood behind their opinion and took the consiquences of jail, torture and even death. After many years when other people could physically prove their theories and beliefs, they were proven correct. I respect this type of great person that will stand behind his theories when they know their right. When it came down to going through the punishments they knew they were going to receive, most people would cave in and change their opinion.
I agree that people are usually too worried about the consequences of their actions. They also are concerned about what other people think of them. The people that you mentioned: Luther, Pythagoras, Newton… these are all people we learned from. They went above and beyond to prove something they knew was real to them. I think that’s another example of how we are born with an inner wisdom and that we cannot look outside of ourselves for answers. Emerson was excellent at pointing these things out. Great picture, too!
ReplyDeleteI also added a quote to the class blog from Self-Reliance. I found Emerson’s writing defining the Transidentalist movement. I like the quote you have chosen and I also like the picture you have used to define your quote. When you reference a great man to Galileo, my first thought was that it was a brilliant reference. Galileo was a person Emerson would consider a great man, for he was willing to stand up for his own thoughts and beliefs.
ReplyDeleteUpon solely looking at just your picture chosen and the quote I struggled to find a link between the two. I think you stated it perfectly though; "many great and brialiant people made discoveries that at the time were considered impossible and absurd." This is so true. Many years ago when new ideas were brought about they were very thoroughly questioned- and sometimes the people making these discoveries were thought of as crazy! They didn't have the technology to test the new discoveries. I like how you included many supportive instances on how your quote holds true. It's a very short quote but it holds lots of meaning.
ReplyDeleteYou’re absolutely right. Many people have been misunderstood throughout history. There were many people that did extremely great things that were incredible accomplishments but still were not completely recognizes for their doings such as discovery findings or inventions. I think this quote applies to now as well. I’m sure everyone has at least once believed that they achieved a level of greatness and were completely misunderstood by others and did not get the recognition they felt they deserved.
ReplyDeleteTo be great is to be misunderstood. That is exactally what it means. The great discoveries over time wre never immediatlty accepted. How can one man discover the concelt of gravity for example. No one even believed it was such a thing. Or with Martin Luther King. He is celebrated as a holiday now, but at his time he was not considrered great by very many people and his beliefs eventualy led to his death.
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