Self-Reliance
"Self-Reliance" is an 1841 essay written by American transcendentalist philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson. It contains the most thorough statement of one of his recurrent themes: the need for each person to avoid conformity and false consistency, and follow his or her own instincts and ideas. It is the source of one of his most famous quotations:
This article is about the essay by Ralph Waldo Emerson. For other uses, see Self-reliance.History[edit]
The first hint of the philosophy that would become "Self-Reliance" was presented by Ralph Waldo Emerson as part of a sermon in September 1830 a month after his first marriage.[4](p99) His wife Ellen was sick with tuberculosis[5] and, as Emerson's biographer Robert D. Richardson wrote, "Immortality had never been stronger or more desperately needed!"[4](p99)
From 1836 into 1837, Emerson presented a series of lectures on the philosophy of history at Boston's Masonic Temple. These lectures were never published separately, but many of his thoughts in these were later used in "Self-Reliance" and several other essays.[4](p257) Later lectures, such as "The American Scholar" and the Divinity School Address,[6]
by Emerson led to public censure of his radical views, the staunch defense of individualism in "Self-Reliance" being a possible reaction to that censure.[4](p300)
"Self-Reliance" was first published in his 1841 collection, Essays: First Series.[7]
Emerson helped start the beginning of the Transcendentalist movement in America. "Self-Reliance" is one of Emerson's most famous essays. Emerson wrote on "individualism, personal responsibility, and nonconformity."[8]
Emerson had a very large background of religious affiliations. His father was a Unitarian minister; Emerson eventually followed in his father's footsteps to become a minister as well. Emerson's religious practices can be viewed as unconventional and his beliefs, non-traditional. Emerson understood that individuals are inexplicably different and ideas are constantly changing. He encouraged religious individuals to "'breathe new life into the old forms of their religion."[9]
The Transcendentalist movement flourished in New England and proposed a revolutionarily new philosophy of life. This new philosophy drew upon old ideas of Romanticism, Unitarianism, and German Idealism as well as the American republican tradition.[10] Some of these ideas pertained closely to the values of America at the time. These values included nature, individualism, and reform, and can be noted in Emerson's essay.
In popular culture[edit]
Emerson's quote, "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds", is a running joke in the 1998 film Next Stop Wonderland. A single woman (portrayed by Hope Davis), who is familiar with the Emerson quote, goes on dates with several men, each of whom tries to impress her by referencing the line, but misquotes it and misattributes it to W.C. Fields, Karl Marx, or Cicero.[16]
This quote is also referenced in one of the episodes of the television show The Mentalist when Patrick Jane meets a crime boss and they start a dialogue.
It was also stated in the 1989 film Dream a Little Dream in reference to a group of teenagers who regularly take a short cut through the backyard of an older couple, it is used as well in the 1972 comedy film What's Up, Doc?
Isaac Asimov, in author's notes to his collection of mystery short stories, Asimov's Mysteries, invokes the quote with the single word "Emerson!" whenever one story in the collection, set in a common universe, appears to contradict another. For instance, the story "The Dying Night" appears to contradict the background of "The Singing Bell". Asimov relates how he was introduced to the quotation while reviewing proofs of an article with his co-authors.
