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.
• A man is relieved and gay when he has put his heart into his work and done his best; but what he has said or done otherwise, shall give him no peace.
• Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members.
• A man is to carry himself in the presence of all opposition, as if every thing were titular and ephemeral but he.
• Do your work, and you shall reinforce yourself.
• For nonconformity the world whips you with its displeasure.
• A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.
• Speak what you think now in hard words, and tomorrow speak what tomorrow things in hard words again, though it contradict ever thing you said today.
• To be great is to be misunderstood.
• Prayer is the contemplation of the facts of life from the highest point of view.
• Our minds travel when our bodies are forced to stay at home.
• Insist on yourself, never imitate.
• Every great man is a unique.
• Society never advances. It recedes as fast on one side as it gains on the other.
• For every thing that is given, something is taken.
• Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Nothing can bring you peace but triumph of principles.