"Every great man is a unique". R.W Emerson told us that Self-confidence is always about independence : "What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think. This rule, equally arduous in actual and in intellectual life, may serve for the whole distinction between greatness and meanness. It is the harder because you will always find those who think they know what is your duty 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."

A finely honed abridgement of Emerson's principal essays with an introduction that clarifies the essence of Emerson's ideas and establishes their relevance to our own troubled era. This is the first truly accessible edition of Emerson's work, revealing him to be one of America's wisest teachers.

The six essays and one address in this volume flesh out Emerson's transcendentalist ideas. In addition to the celebrated title essay, the others included here are "History," "Friendship," "The Over-Soul," "The Poet" and "Experience," plus the famous Harvard Divinity School Address.

Publisher Description

Ralph Waldo Emerson became a Unitarian minister when he was twenty-five years old, but soon began to question his commitment to the denomination's beliefs. Eventually, he resigned his ministry, choosing instead to write and speak about his own ideas. In the process, he became the most influential writer and philosopher in the United States. Emerson's life was marked by ill health and family tragedies that challenged his commitment to his doctrine of self-reliance. He found solace in both his love of nature and his commitment to the American Transcendental Movement, which emphasized an individual's intuitive ability to live a spiritual life free of religious doctrine and social customs. He popularized the group's ideas in his essays and public lectures. Over a long and productive life, Ralph Waldo Emerson made himself into the most important figure in the first flowering of a truly American culture. Book jacket.

Ralph Waldo Emerson was one of the great minds of the mid-nineteenth century. His thoughts and views led the Transcendentalist movement, and his writings—especially Self-Reliance—taught people to “trust thyself” and see how their self-worth was more important than anything else. Emerson on Self-Reliance is a wonderful collection of writings that will teach not only how to have a better perception of the world, but also how you are capable of having a better perception of yourself. “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.” With quotes and excerpts from Emerson’s poems, essays, and other writings, Emerson on Self-Reliance will not only open your eyes to the brilliant mind that he was, but hopefully help you look inside to see how great you really are and, as stated before, to “trust thyself.”