Essays
From "Self-Reliance"
"What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think. This rule, equally arduous in actual and in intellectual life, may serve for the whole distinction between greatness and meanness. It is the harder because you will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it. It is easy in the world to live after the world's 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."
(Emerson's Essays, p. 38)
2 comments:
Thanks for posting this. I love Emerson and I love this passage. More folks would do well to heed it. I would just add what Churchill added when he said something similar- that is, it is OK to bend if presented with an argument based upon good sense. There are some that would do well to heed that too.
Brian,
Thanks for your reference to Churchill, also a favorite of mine. Over the past two years I've been reading many foundational works of the Modern tradition. Of the authors Emerson is near the top with regard to his thoughtfulness and genius.
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