Emerson and Self-Reliance

Ralph Waldo Emerson, in 1841, wrote: “On Self-Reliance.” While not simple, Emerson wanted readers to think for themselves. The message is timely.  As Marxist doctrine, a dumbing down of education, and rising indoctrination threaten society, Emerson’s lessons loom large.

The essay wanders a bit, but he argues that conformity is a trap. He pushes readers – as the Transcendentalists did – to look anew, look afresh at everything, see goodness and truth.

His most famous quote may be: “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers, and divines.” Message? Think for yourself, don’t follow.

Elsewhere, he prods us. “Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood?… To be great is to be misunderstood.”

In a tip toward the artist, writer, and creator of all things original, he observes: “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 wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil … The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried.” So, get up each day and try.

Arguing we should seek after things authentic, he makes thinkers of us, because we are asked to dig deep for authenticity and also to appreciate it in others. Explaining himself, he notes:  “Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind,” and so we must – in that Shakespearean line – be true to ourselves. “Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.”

The reason is internal, not external, about how we will feel, not how others will view us. “Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles.”

He warns of the many ways people will judge an original thinker, the one who defends principles on which he has settled, even when they are not popular. “… You will always find those who think they know what your duty is 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.”

When it comes to doing what is right, we must think for ourselves, with reference to sources of goodness we trust. He notes that “God will not have his work made manifest by cowards.” Standing firm for beliefs is part of authenticity.

So, by examples and prods, he pitches we should first know who we are, what we believe, and why, then stick to it. “Insist on yourself; never imitate. Your own gift you can present every moment with the cumulative force of a whole life’s cultivation, but of the adopted talent of another, you have only an extemporaneous half possession. That which each can do best, none but his Maker can teach him.”

Of course, to Emerson we owe other gems. “It is not the Destination, it’s the journey,” and “A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the luster of the firmament of bards and sages. Yet he dismisses without notice his thought, because it is his.”

In the end, he thinks we need to resist what is pushed upon us, teach those who follow to do that, since we only have deep convictions from examining truth for ourselves, coming to that finding.

“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.” So, be confident in your faith, sure that you are refreshing it. “Speak your latent conviction…and our first thought is rendered back to us by the trumpets of the Last Judgment.”

He summarizes life: “The voyage of the best ship is a zigzag line of a hundred tacks. See the line from a sufficient distance, and it straightens itself to the average tendency. Your genuine action will explain itself…” In short, he encourages us to be ourselves: “What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think.”

Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, Maine attorney, ten-year naval intelligence officer (USNR), and 25-year businessman. He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (North Country Press, 2018), and “Cherish America: Stories of Courage, Character, and Kindness” (Tower Publishing, 2024). He is the National Spokesman for AMAC. Today, he is running to be Maine’s next Governor (please visit BobbyforMaine.com to learn more)!