Born on this day in Boston, Massachusetts, philosopher and transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) believed redemption could be found in one’s own soul and in the heart of intuition.

A Unitarian minister for three years, he left the pulpit after disagreeing with the church’s doctrine. In 1832, he traveled in Europe and met with Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Carlyle, who became a lifelong friend and correspondent.

In 1834, he moved to Concord, Massachusetts, and turned to transcendentalism, a belief in Nature as a doorway to spiritual truth. “God enters by a private door into every individual,” he said.

Emerson’s landmark essays Nature (1836) and Self-Reliance (1841) celebrated the individual spirit. “A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere. Before him, I may think aloud.”

He taught that within each person lies the power for greatness. “A chief event of life is the day in which we have encountered a mind that startled us,” he said. He championed bold thinking, self-examination, and belief in one’s own voice.

His influence echoed through the writings of Thoreau, Fuller, and Whitman. His truths remain timeless, inviting each of us to stand tall in our authenticity and seek the sacred in the everyday.