Ralph Waldo Emerson 
Self-Reliance 

‘Self-Reliance’ is an 1841 essay written by American transcendentalist philosopher and essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson. It contains the most thorough statement of one of Emerson’s recurrent themes: the need for each individual to avoid conformity and false consistency, and follow his own instincts and ideas. It is the source of one of Emerson’s most famous quotations: ‘A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.

Emerson focuses on seemingly insignificant details explaining how life is ‘learning and forgetting and learning again’.

About the author

Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803 – April 27, 1882) was an American essayist,  lecturer,  philosopher, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) propounded a transcendental idealism emphasizing self-reliance, self-culture, and individual expression.

Emerson wrote most of his important essays as lectures first and then revised them for print. His first two collections of essays, Essays: First Series (1841) and Essays: Second Series (1844), represent the core of his thinking.