Self-Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Page 4

Even if we're able to hear these voices of self-reliance when we're alone, they grow faint and inaudible as we go out into the world.

Society everywhere is in a conspiracy
against the humanity of every one of its members.

Society is a publicly held corporation. The stockholders agree, in order to maximize return on their investment, to sacrifice everyone's liberty and uniqueness. The most valued ethic is conformity. Self-reliance is its opposite. The Company Way is not truth and creativity, but labels and customs.

Be a Nonconformist

If you want to be a human being, be a nonconformist. To make a lasting contribution, don't let yourself be limited by what is labeled good, but instead explore for yourself if it is good.

Nothing is truly sacred
but the integrity of your own mind.

Declare yourself honorable to yourself and the world will rally behind you.

The Devil's Child?

I remember a conversation I had with my godfather as a boy. I asked him, "Why should I care about sacred traditions, if everything in my life comes from inside myself?"

He suggested, "Well, those impulses may come from Hell, not from Heaven!"

I replied, "They don't seem that way. But if I'm really the Devil's child—I suppose I'll live the way my father raises me."

No law can be sacred to me
unless it's a law of my nature.

Good and Bad

Good and bad are just names that can easily be transferred to one thing or another. The only right is what is aligned with my integrity; the only wrong is what is against it.

Carry yourself against all opposition
as if everything but yourself
were temporary and in name only.

I'm ashamed to think how easily we surrender to badges and titles, to large societies and dead institutions. Well-respected and well-spoken people sway me much more than they should. I ought to live unsuppressed, with my head held high, and always speak the rude truth.

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