Category Archives: Emerson

Defining Emersonian “Self-Reliance”

• based on a foundation of self- worth and individualism
• don’t live a lavish lifestyle, instead trust in your own opinions and have confidence–don’t conform!
• everything Emerson does is “for himself”
• “Insist on yourself; never imitate”
• one cannot be one’s own person if he/she does not depend on his or her own voice
• if you believe your own ideas, you don’t have to rely on someone else to help you be yourself
• everybody has their “inner weird”–quirks, flaws, and these are what make us individuals–be proud of them!
• truth must come from within–if I help someone else because that is what I want to do, it might inspire someone else to find that same desire within themselves

“Self-Reliance” in 2011

• many teenagers conform to what their friends are doing just to fit in–this is an unnatural act against their own characters, it is impossible for everyone to be the same, therefore everyone must act differently
• a person has to rely on his or her own self almost all the time in order to provide oneself with the ability and judgment to do what one should do
• today we imitate, follow society’s trends–this is a temptation that leads us away from self-reliance