Ralph Waldo Emerson argues that self-reliance and independence of thought are essential for personal growth and fulfillment. He asserts that true understanding comes from within oneself rather than from external sources. Society often values conformity over self-reliance and individual expression, but great men throughout history have trusted themselves and their own perceptions despite being misunderstood.

1. By Ralph Waldo Emerson Self Reliance

2. There is a time in every man's education

3. when he arrives at the conviction that envy

4. is ignorance;

5. that imitation is suicide;

6. that he must take himself

7. for better,

8. for worse,

9. as his portion;

10. that though the wide universe is full of good,

11. no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him

12. but through his toil

13. bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till.

14. The power which resides in him

15. is new in nature,

16. and none but he knows

17. what that is which he can do,

18. nor does he know until he has tried.

19. Not for nothing one face, one character, one fact,

20. makes much impression on him, and another none.

21. This sculpture in the memory is not without

22. preestablished harmony.

23. The eye was placed where one ray should fall, that it might testify

24. of that particular ray.

25. We but half express ourselves, and are ashamed

26. of that divine idea

27. which each of us represents.

28. It may be safely trusted as proportionate and of good issues, so it be faithfully imparted,

29. but God will not have his work made manifest By cowards.

30. A man is relieved and gay

31. when he has put his heart into his work and done his best;

32. but what he has said or done otherwise,

33. shall give him no peace.

34. It is a deliverance

35. which does not deliver.

36. In the attempt his genius deserts him;

37. no muse befriends; no invention, no hope.

38. Trust thyself:

39. every heart vibrates

40. to that iron string.

41. Accept the place the divine providence has found for you,

42. the society of your contemporaries,

43. the connection of events.

44. Great men have always done so,

45. and confided themselves childlike

46. to the genius of their age,

47. betraying their perception that the absolutely trustworthy was seated at their heart,

48. working through their hands, predominating in all their being.

49. And we are now men,

50. and must accept

51. in the highest mind

52. the same transcendent destiny;

53. and not minors and invalids

54. in a protected corner,

55. not cowards fleeing before a revolution,

56. but guides, redeemers, and benefactors, obeying

57. the Almighty effort,

58. and advancing on Chaos

59. and the Dark. . . .

60. These are the voices

61. which we hear

62. in solitude,

63. but they grow faint

64. and inaudible

65. as we enter

66. into the world.

67. Society everywhere is in conspiracy

68. against

69. the manhood

70. of every one of its members.

71. Society is a joint-stock company, in which the members agree,

72. for the better securing of his bread

73. to each shareholder,

74. to surrender

75. the liberty

76. and culture of the eater.

77. The virtue

78. in most request

79. is conformity.

80. Self-reliance

81. is its aversion.

82. It loves

83. not realities

84. and creators,

85. but names

86. and customs.

87. Whoso would be a man

88. must be a nonconformist.

89. He who would gather immortal palms

90. must not be hindered by the name of goodness,

91. but must explore

92. if it be goodness.

93. Nothing is at last sacred

94. but the integrity

95. of your own mind.

96. Absolve you to yourself,

97. and you shall have the suffrage of the world....

98. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin

99. of little minds,

100. adored by little statesmen

101. and philosophers and divines.

102. With consistency a great soul

103. has simply nothing to do.

104. He may as well concern himself

105. with his shadow on the wall.

106. Speak what you think now

107. in hard words,

108. and to- morrow speak

109. what to-morrow thinks in hard words again,

110. though it contradict every thing

111. you said to-day.

112. -- "Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood."

113. -- Is it so bad, then,

114. to be misunderstood?

115. Pythagoras was misunderstood,

116. and Socrates,

117. and Jesus,

118. and Luther,

119. and Copernicus,

120. and Galileo,

121. and Newton,

122. and every pure and wise spirit

123. that ever took flesh.

124. To be great

125. is to be misunderstood.

126. x