The Essay on Self-relianceRoycrofters, 1908 - 59 pages |
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Page 10
... opinion from another . There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance ; that imitation is suicide ; that he must take himself for better , for worse , as his portion ; that though the ...
... opinion from another . There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance ; that imitation is suicide ; that he must take himself for better , for worse , as his portion ; that though the ...
Page 14
... opinions on all passing affairs , which being seen to be not private but necessary , would sink like darts into the ear of men , and put them in fears These are the voices which we hear in solitude , but they grow faint and audible as ...
... opinions on all passing affairs , which being seen to be not private but necessary , would sink like darts into the ear of men , and put them in fears These are the voices which we hear in solitude , but they grow faint and audible as ...
Page 19
... opinion ; it is easy in solitude to live after our own ; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude . The objection to conforming to usages that have become dead to ...
... opinion ; it is easy in solitude to live after our own ; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude . The objection to conforming to usages that have become dead to ...
Page 20
... opinion . This conformity makes them not false in a few particulars , authors of a few lies , but false in all particulars . Their every truth is not quite true . Their two is not the real two , their four not the real four ; so that ...
... opinion . This conformity makes them not false in a few particulars , authors of a few lies , but false in all particulars . Their every truth is not quite true . Their two is not the real two , their four not the real four ; so that ...
Page 32
... opinions , or rather much more readily ; for , they do not distinguish between perception and notion . They fancy that I choose to see this or that thing . But perception is not whimsical , but fatal . If I see a trait , my children ...
... opinions , or rather much more readily ; for , they do not distinguish between perception and notion . They fancy that I choose to see this or that thing . But perception is not whimsical , but fatal . If I see a trait , my children ...
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Common terms and phrases
aboriginal abroad affectation alms apologetic ashamed better bring you peace brother's called cause character charity church classification conformity consciousness contradict discern divine doctrine duties East Aurora ESSAY ON SELF-RELIANCE fact feel feet foolish force foreign Galileo genius genuine action godlike Hampshire hear heart henceforward highest hope idol imitation immortal impure action institutions involuntary perceptions Italy Let the words light live look lose manhood means memory mendicant metaphysics mind misunderstood Naples nature never noble numbers opinion past act perfect persons popular prayer present proceedeth Quakerism rage RALPH WALDO EMERSON Reliance religion rich Rome Roycrofters Scipio seek self-trust Shakespeare shame society Socrates solitude soul sour face speak spirit spontaneous stand stay at home stoic sweet tell thee things thou thought to-day to-morrow Traveling true truly truth virtue or vice voice wake whole young
Popular passages
Page 22 - never to rely on your memory alone, scarcely even in acts of pure memory, but bring the past for judgment into the thousand-eyed present, and live ever in a new day. Trust your emotion. In your metaphysics you have denied personality to the Deity: yet when the devout motions of the soul come,
Page 16 - shall that pass? 5$ If an angry bigot assumes this bountiful cause of Abolition, and comes to me with his last news of the Barbadoes, why should I not say to him, "Go love thy infant; love thy woodchopper: be good-natured and modest: have that grace; and never varnish, your hard, uncharitable ambition with this
Page 23 - Is it so bad then to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood. I suppose no man can violate his nature. All the sallies of his will are rounded in by the law of his
Page 31 - we discern truth, we do nothing of ourselves, but allow a passage to its beams. If we ask whence this comes, if we seek to pry into the soul that causes,—all metaphysics, all philosophy is at fault. Its presence or its absence is all we can affirm
Page 13 - it is he! it is that very lump of bashfulness and phlegm which for weeks has done nothing but eat when you were by, that now rolls out these words like bell-strokes. It seems he knows how to speak to his contemporaries. Bashful or bold, then, he will know how to make us seniors very unnecessary.
Page 31 - is the fountain of action and the fountain of thought. Here are the lungs of that inspiration which giveth man wisdom, of that inspiration of man which cannot be denied without impiety and atheism. We lie in the lap of immense intelligence, which makes us organs of its activity and receivers of its truth. When we discern justice,
Page 55 - avail to educate greater men than Plutarch's heroes, three or four centuries ago. Not in time is the race progressive. Phocion, Socrates, Anaxagoras, Diogenes, are great men, but they leave no class. He who is really of their class will not be called by their name, but be wholly his own man, and in
Page 57 - is seeking after thee; therefore be at rest from seeking after it." Our dependence on these foreign goods leads us to our slavish respect for numbers. The political parties meet in numerous conventions; the greater the concourse, and with each new uproar of announcement, The delegation from Essex! The
Page 35 - It is as easy for the strong man to be strong, as it is for the weak to be weak. When we have new perception, we shall gladly disburthen the memory of its hoarded treasures as old rubbish. When a man lives with God, his voice shall be as sweet as the murmur of the brook and the rustle of the corn.
Page 43 - We want men and women who shall renovate life and our social state, but we see that most natures are insolvent; cannot satisfy their own wants, have an ambition out of all proportion to their practical force, and so do lean and beg day and night continually. Our