"Self Reliance" by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

Epigrams are short, pointed, memorable statements and form the heart of Emerson's rhetorical style.  Here is a sampling of Emerson's epigrammatic assertions in our selection on Monday night, "Self-Reliance," possibly his most famous essay (page citations are from Great Conversations 1):

To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men--that is genius.

(page 169).

We but half express ourselves, and are ashamed of that divine idea which each of us represents. (page 170)

Accept the place the divine providence has found for you, the society of your contemporaries, the connection of events. (page 170)

Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist. (page 171)

It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after your own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude. (page 172)

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by statesmen and philosophers and divines. (page 174)

To be great is to be misunderstood. (page 174)

I like the silent church before the service begins, better than any preaching. (page 180)

Discontent is the want of self-reliance: it is infirmity of will. (page 180)

For every Stoic was a Stoic; but in Christendom where is the Christian? (page 186)

Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. (page 187)

With thanks to Bartlett's Familiar Quotations 15th edition.