Circles — Emerson's 1841 essay on the impossibility of fixity — every circle another can be drawn, every end a beginning, every truth superseded by a bolder one.
Nature — Emerson's founding essay of American Transcendentalism — a vision of nature as spirit made visible, and of the human soul as its rightful sovereign.
Representative Men — Ralph Waldo Emerson's 1850 book of seven lectures — on Plato, Swedenborg, Montaigne, Shakspeare, Napoleon and Goethe — arguing that great men serve us as lenses and representatives of tendencies latent in every mind, not as masters to be obeyed.
Self-Reliance — Emerson's 1841 manifesto of American spiritual independence: trust thyself, reject conformity, and live wholly from within.
The Conduct of Life — Emerson's 1860 book of nine essays — Fate, Power, Wealth, Culture, Behavior, Worship, Considerations by the Way, Beauty and Illusions — the late work in which limitation, circumstance and necessity are weighed against the self-trust of his early writing.
The Divinity School Address — Emerson's 1838 address to Harvard Divinity graduates: the churches are empty vessels, the soul is its own priest, and a new teacher is coming.
The Over-Soul — Emerson's 1841 essay on the universal mind that contains all individual souls — the Over-Soul, in which every moment of genuine faith participates.