“No good idea was ever allowed to get away.”

Few things could be more fascinating than to study the life of a great thinker. Van Wyck Brooks wrote an interesting study of the gifted American essayist and poet, Ralph Waldo Emerson that he titled, A Biography of an Inner Life. Mr. Brooks studied Emerson from every point of view possible. He examined his philosophy, his methods of communication, his problems, and his successes. With interesting clarity, he was able to look inside Emerson’s mind where the real reasons for
both success and failure are always found.

The biography gives a series of “portraits” of Emerson’s thinking, his spirit, his ttitudes, his motivations, and his nobility. The more we find out about greatness, the more we understand that it comes in response to some deliberate effort. The more we study other people, the more we discover that their problems often have a family resemblance to our own.

Excerpted from “Lessons From Great Lives” by Dan McCormick & Sterling W. Sill