Self-Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson

“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)

This 21 page essay is about the most didactic philosophical work ever written. It has taken me on a journey of self-discovery. According to Emerson, everyone is a potential genius but we are often limited by our consciousness, our conformist attitude to societal traditions and our inability to live wholly from within. Those spontaneous thoughts and impressions you ignore may turn out to be other people’s celebrated inventions sometime in the future. Nothing is so embarrassing as watching someone do what you think couldn't be done.

More importantly, I love his view on the concept of prayer:

“Prayer is the contemplation of the facts of life from the highest
point of view. It is the soliloquy of a beholding and jubilant soul. It is the
spirit of God pronouncing his works good. But prayer as a means to effect
a private end is meanness and theft. It supposes dualism and not unity in
nature and consciousness. As soon as the man is at one with God, he will not
beg. He will then see prayer in all action. The prayer of the farmer kneeling
in his field to weed it, the prayer of the rower kneeling with the stroke of
his oar, are true prayers heard throughout nature, though for cheap ends.”

This essay will be a good read for those who prefer a divergence from the conventional, common place stuff.

Here’s the link to the pdf version- https://math.dartmouth.edu/~doyle/docs/self/self.pdf

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