Self-Reliance

This article is about the essay by Ralph Waldo Emerson. For other uses, see Self-reliance.
Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay called for staunch individualism.

"Self-Reliance" is an 1841 essay written by American transcendentalist philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson. It contains the most thorough statement of one of his recurrent themes: the need for each person to avoid conformity and false consistency, and follow his or her own instincts and ideas. It is the source of one of his most famous quotations:

"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines."[1]

This essay is an analysis into the nature of the "aboriginal self on which a universal reliance may be grounded".[2] Emerson emphasizes the importance of individualism and its effect on a person's satisfaction in life, explaining how life is "learning and forgetting and learning again".[3]

  1. ^ Emerson, Ralph Waldo (1841). "Familiar Quotations". Bartleby.com (10th ed.). Bartleby Inc. (published 1919).
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