Quotes About Individuality

He who should inspire and lead his race must be defended from travelling with the souls of other men, from living, breathing, reading, and writing in the daily, time-worn yoke of their opinions.

Nature magically suits the man to his fortunes, by making these the fruit of his character.

Why should not we also enjoy an original relation to the universe? Why should not we have a

But how insular and pathetically solitary are all the people we know! Nor dare they tell what they think of each other when they meet in the street. We have a fine right, to be sure, to taunt men of the world with superficial and treacherous courtesies!

Let us affront and reprimand the smooth mediocrity and squalid contentment of the times, and hurl in the face of custom, and trade, and office, the fact which is the upshot of all history, that there is a great responsible Thinker and Actor working wherever a man works; that a true man belongs to no other time or place, but is the centre of things. Where he is, there is nature.

It makes no difference whether the appeal is to numbers or to one. The faith that stands on authority is not faith.

is only as a man puts off all foreign support, and stands alone, that I see him to be strong and to prevail.

I must be myself. I cannot break myself any longer for you, or you. If you can love me for what I am, we shall be the happier. If you cannot, I will still seek to deserve that you should.

If you are true, but not in the same truth with me, cleave to your companions; I will seek my own. I do this not selfishly, but humbly and truly. It is alike your interest, and mine, and all men's, however long we have dwelt in lies, to live in truth.

The knowledge of picture-dealers has its value, but listen not to their criticism when your heart is touched by genius. It was not painted for them, it was painted for you; for such as had eyes capable of being touched by simplicity and lofty emotions.

The finest people marry the two sexes in their own person.

know exactly what it wants. The one thing it does know is that it feels ill at ease and pinched by society's conventions. Society ought to cherish this voice of resistance and tolerate its excesses. For there is hope in extravagant feeling and creativity, but there is no hope in lifeless repetition and routine.

All men are at last of a size; and true art is only possible, on the conviction that every talent has its apotheosis somewhere. Fair play, and an open field, and freshest laurels to all who have won them! But heaven reserves an equal scope for every creature. Each is uneasy until he has produced his private ray unto the concave sphere, and beheld his talent also in its last nobility and exaltation.

The soul is what knows—and draws us towards—truth, beauty, and goodness. Moreover, for Emerson, each person's soul is only a part of the great, universal "over-soul." He describes the soul as a vast ocean, with our individual souls being tiny inlets into the shore. Individuality is an illusion—really, we're all connected, like fingers extending from one hand.

Nature arms each man with some faculty which enables him to do easily some feat impossible to any other, and thus makes him necessary to society. This native determination guides his labor and his spending. He wants an equipment of means and tools proper to his talent. And to save on this point were to neutralize the special strength and helpfulness of each mind. Do your work, respecting the excellence of the work, and not its acceptableness.

Es tan malo, entonces, el ser mal interpretado? Pitágoras fue mal interpretado, y lo fueron Sócrates, Jesús, Lutero y Galileo, y lo fueron todos los espíritus puros y graves que han honrado a la humanidad. Ser grande es ser mal comprendido.

It is only as a man puts off all foreign support, and stands alone, that I see him to be strong and to prevail.

En la comunidad, es fácil vivir según ideas ajenas. En la soledad, es fácil vivir según las ideas propias. Pero solo es notable el que, en la comunidad, conseva la independencia.

The landscape belongs to the person who looks at it.

La naturaleza nos dotará del uniforme de prisión del partido al que nos adherimos.

None of us will ever accomplish anything excellent or commanding except when he listens to this whisper which is heard by him alone

I hate quotes: tell me what you know.

nature is not slow to equip us in the prison-uniform of the party to which we adhere. We come to wear one cut of face and figure, and acquire by degrees the gentlest asinine expression.

That which each can do best, none but his Maker can teach him