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Self Reliance

• Ralph Waldo Emerson

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What do you think? What kind of impact did this
essay have on you?

• Share reactions

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Which does Emerson value more original thought
or traditional wisdom?

• He values original thought.
• imitation is suicide
• Whose would be a man, must be a nonconformist

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According to Emerson, which virtue does society
demand most truth, conformity, creativity, or
self-reliance?

• Conformity
• For nonconformity the world whips you with its
  displeasure

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What is the only law that Emerson says can be
sacred to him?

• His own nature
• No law can be sacred to me but that of my
  nature
• Emerson believed in the basic goodness of humans,
  that they would do the right thing if given the
  chance to make their own decisions.

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Summarize Emersons main ideas

• Do your own thing
• imitation is suicide
• Trust your own ideas
• Trust thyself
• Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist
• No law can be sacred to me but that of my
  nature
• What I must do is all that concerns me

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Summarize Emersons main ideas (cont.)

• Its hard to be a nonconformist
• For nonconformity the world whips you
• the great man is he who in the midst of the
  crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the
  independence of solitude
• Dont let consistency keep you from trusting
  yourself
• A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little
  minds

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Describe parts of your own life in which
Emersons ideas might apply

• Nonconformity
• Disregard for consistency
• Peer pressure

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If you had heard this essay as a public lecture,
what questions would you have liked to ask
Emerson directly about his philosophy?
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Bonus identify at least two aphorisms from this
essay.
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Transcendentalist Literature Chart
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Self-reliance/intuition

• Title Self-Reliance
• Trust thyself
• No law can be sacred to me but that of my nature

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Importance of nature

• Human nature
• No law can be sacred to me but that of my nature

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Free thought and expression

• Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist
• Speak what you think now in hard words and
  to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard
  words again

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Importance of individual/nonconformity

• Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist.
• What I must do is all that concerns me, not what
  the people think.
• the great man is he who in the midst of the
  crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the
  independence of solitude.

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Confidence

• Speak what you think now in hard words and
  to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard
  words again, though it contradict every thing you
  said today.