Concept
Self-Reliance
Overview
"Self-Reliance" is an 1841 essay written by American transcendentalist philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson. It contains the most thorough statement of one of his recurrent themes: the need for each person to avoid conformity and false consistency, and follow their own instincts and ideas. It is the source of one of his most famous quotations:
"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines."
This essay is an analysis into the nature of the "aboriginal self on which a universal reliance may be grounded". Emerson emphasizes the importance of individualism and its effect on a person's satisfaction in life, explaining how life is "learning and forgetting and learning again".
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
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4 (pag. 9–11). The same self-reliance is noticeable in the next and concluding paragraph of the Introduction. Here he treats of the contradictions which are to be found in literary works, and he divides them with regard to their origin into seven classes.
Moses Maimonides, The guide for the perplexed
States what Self-Reliance is; names Self-Reliance.
"Let us only think of what takes place at such an age in the production of such work. It is the first individual creation; the still undeveloped powers tend for the first time to crystallise; the staggering sensation produced by the demand for self-reliance imparts a seductive charm to these early performances, which is not only quite new, but which never returns. All the daring of nature is hauled out of its…
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, On the Future of our Educational Institutions
Names Self-Reliance.
The fact is that non-co-operation by reason of its non-violence has become a religious and purifying movement. It is daily bringing strength to the nation, showing it its weak spots and the remedy for removing them. It is a movement of self-reliance. It is the mightiest force for revolutionising opinion and stimulating thought. It is a movement of self-imposed suffering and therefore possesses automatic checks…
Mahatma Gandhi, Freedom's Battle Being a Comprehensive Collection of Writings and Speeches on the Present Situation
Names Self-Reliance.
Related ideas
- Individualism
- Transcendentalism
- Karl Marx
- Philosophy of history
- Moby-Dick
- German idealism
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
- Spirituality
- Cicero
- Solipsism
Place in the tradition
Part of Transcendentalism.