Self-Reliance is an essay written by American Transcendentalist philosopher and essayist, Ralph Waldo Emerson. It contains the most thorough statement of one of Emerson's repeating themes, the need for each individual to avoid conformity and false consistency, and follow his or her own instincts and ideas. It is the source of one of Emerson's most famous quotes, "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds."
The first hint of the philosophy that would become Self-Reliance was presented by Emerson as part of a sermon in September 1830 a month after his first marriage.[1] His wife was sick with tuberculosis[2] and, as Emerson's biographer Robert D. Richardson wrote, "Immortality had never been stronger or more desperately needed!"[1]
From 1836 into 1837, Emerson presented a series of lectures on the philosophy of history at Boston's Masonic Temple. These lectures were never published separately but many of his thoughts in these lectures were later used in "Self-Reliance" and several other essays.[3] Later lectures by Emerson, especially the "Divinity School Address", led to public censure for Emerson's radical views; the staunch defense of individualism in "Self-Reliance" may be a reaction to that censure.[4]
Self-Reliance was first published in his 1841 collection, Essays: First Series.
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Self Reliance
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