Emerson on How to Trust Yourself and What Solitude Really Means
In 1841, the American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson published his most profound essay, ‘Self-Reliance’. In it, he set himself the task of trying to understand where greatness comes from, in business, government, science and the arts – and his answer was touchingly close to home. Geniuses are those who know how to introspect and trust in their own
... See moreThe School of Life • A Job to Love (The School of Life Library)
I READ the other day some verses written by an eminent painter which were original and not conventional. The soul always hears an admonition in such lines, let the subject be what it may. The sentiment they instil is of more value than any thought they may contain. To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private he
... See moreRalph Waldo Emerson • Self Reliance (Illustrated)
21 best ideas in Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay on Self Reliance (via justin murphy)
Most people do not trust their own beliefs. The essence of genius is simply to trust yourself—to infer that whatever seems most true in your heart is most true in reality—and for everybody else, too, despite whatever they may claim.
There is hardly anything more painful
If our young men miscarry in their first enterprises they lose all heart. If the young merchant fails, men say he is ruined. If the finest genius studies at one of our colleges and is not installed in an office within one year afterwards in the cities or suburbs of Boston or New York, it seems to his friends and to himself that he is right in being
... See moreRalph Waldo Emerson • Self Reliance (Illustrated)
His solution? Two words: Trust thyself. In the most famous passage from his essay, Emerson writes, “Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string. Accept the place the divine providence has found for you, the society of your contemporaries, the connection of events. Great men have always done so, and confided themselves childlike to the g
... See moreAl Pittampalli • Persuadable: How Great Leaders Change Their Minds to Change the World
In your metaphysics you have denied personality to the Deity, yet when the devout motions of the soul come, yield to them heart and life, though they should clothe God with shape and color. Leave your theory, as Joseph his coat in the hand of the harlot, and flee.