Self Reliance
Self Reliance - fact Summary
First Printed in 1841
"Self-Reliance," published in Essays: First Series (1841), asserts the primacy of an inner, divinely inspired authority over social opinion. Emerson urges the reader to reject external judgments and trust the innate guidance inside the heart, likening that guidance to a needle finding north and a bird remembering its song. The passage encapsulates Transcendentalist faith in individual conscience and spiritual intuition as sources of right action.
Read Complete AnalysesHENCEFORTH, please God, forever I forego The yoke of men's opinions. I will be Light-hearted as a bird, and live with God. I find him in the bottom of my heart, I hear continually his voice therein. horizontal dotted line The little needle always knows the North, The little bird remembereth his note, And this wise Seer within me never errs. I never taught it what it teaches me; I only follow, when I act aright.
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