“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“
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance
To keep the perfect sweetness of solitude in the midst of the crowd is to uphold the virtue of self-reliance. To insist on yourself rather than to imitate is to embrace nonconformity. Both self-reliance and nonconformity are ways of being that allow one to be liberated and free. To live a life authentically and without restraint. It is a daily challenge to find the courage to be true to yourself. Perhaps it is even a life long journey. But when we are true to who we are I believe we can take on anything.
What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance
