James Joyce vs. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Side-by-side comparison of two thinkers
James Joyce
1870 – 1931
James Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, widely regarded as one of the most influential writers of the 20th century, best known for works such as Ulysses, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and Finnegans Wake.
"His heart danced upon her movements like a cork upon a tide. He heard what her eyes said to him from beneath their cowl and knew that in some dim past, whether …"
Ralph Waldo Emerson
1803 – 1882
Ralph Waldo Emerson, who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, minister, abolitionist, and poet who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champion of individualism and critical thinking, as well as a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society and conformity. Friedrich Nietzsche thought he was "the most gifted of the Americans," and Walt Whitman called Emerson his "master".
"He who is in love is wise and is becoming wiser, sees newly every time he looks at the object beloved, drawing from it with his eyes and his mind those virtues …"
Connections
Both wrote about: