“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.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (verified)
Self-Reliance (Primary source)
Perhaps Emerson’s most famous essay, Self-Reliance passionately urges individuals to trust their own instincts and intuitions rather than conforming to societal pressures or external authorities. It champions nonconformity, self-trust, and the power of the individual. Its famous opening line, Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string, encapsulates its core message.
“The reward of a thing well done, is to have done it.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson (verified)“In skating over thin ice, our safety is in our speed.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson (verified)“The law of nature is, Do the thing, and you shall have the power: but they who do not the thing have not the power.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson (verified)“Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson (verified)More quotes by Ralph Waldo Emerson →
“Genius without education is like silver in the mine.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“I believe it to be an invariable rule that tyrants of genius are succeeded by scoundrels.”
— Albert Einstein (verified)“If the law is too mild, private vengeance comes in.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson (verified)“I thought she was probably a little crazy. It was all right if she was. I did not care what I was getting into.”
— Ernest Hemingway (verified)