Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist. He who would gather immortal palms must not be hindered by the name of goodness. Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. Absolve you to yourself and you shall have the sufferage of the world. -- Series I. Self-Reliance
Be yourself; no base imitator of another, but your best self. There is something which you can do better than another. Listen to the inward voice and bravely obey that. Do the things at which you are great, not what you were never made for.
To be great is to be misunderstood. -- Series I. Self-Reliance
For nonconformity the world whips you with its displeasure. -- Series I. Self-Reliance
It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude. -- Series I. Self-Reliance
Great men are they who see that spiritual is stronger than any material force; that thoughts rule the world. -- Progress of Culture. Phi Beta Kappa Address, July 18, 1867.
If you would lift me you must be on higher ground.
The crowning fortune of a man is to be born to some pursuit which finds him employment and happiness, whether it be to make baskets, or broadswords, or canals, or statues, or songs. -- The Conduct of Life. Considerations by the Way
Each man has his own vocation. The talent is the call. There is one direction in which all space is open to him. He has faculties silently inviting him thither to endless exertion. ... He inclines to do something which is easy to him and good when it is done, but which no other man can do. He has no rival. For the more truly he consults his own powers, the more difference will his work exhibit from the work of any other. -- Series I. Spiritual Laws