ON SELF-RELIANCE PART 2

ON SELF-RELIANCE PART 2

"The eye was placed where one ray should fall, that it might testify of that particular ray. "

     - We decide what we give out attention to/small to be or not to be moments

"In the attempt his genius deserts him; no muse befriends; no invention, no hope." 

     - If we don't act on the genius that makes us who we are, like a muscle, it weakens as much as we leave it unexercised. 

Regards the reader as a hero, no matter who you are, you're a hero to someone.

"So God has armed youth and puberty and manhood no less with its own piquancy and charm, and made it enviable and gracious and its claims not to be put by, if it will stand by itself."

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"A boy is in the parlour what the pit is in the playhouse; independent, irresponsible, looking out from his corner on such people and facts as pass by, he tries and sentences them on their merits, in the swift, summary way of boys, as good, bad, interesting, silly, eloquent, troublesome."

     - Youth is grey, with youth there is naïvety and stupidity forgiven by being uniformed and not living through certain things. 

"He would utter opinions on all passing affairs, which being seen to be not private, but necessary, would sink like darts into the ear of men, and put them in fear.

These are the voices which we hear in solitude, but they grow faint and inaudible as we enter into the world."

    - We pass through life with thousands of unvoiced opinions and thoughts that we fear could harm us if anyone heard, or in fear we'd be judged if someone knew so we push them to the back of our head as the day goes by only to get lost in the void called your short term memory.

"Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members. 

     - Society says be your best self but rejects when you're your best self.

First impression of "On Self-Reliance"

First impression of "On Self-Reliance"

My first impression of "On Self-Reliance" by Ralph Waldo Emerson is that this man wrote a whole essay telling people to be themself because they'll regret when someone is positively perceived as someone they could've been. In this essay, Emerson tells us we should learn to understand and accept ourselves because otherwise we cower in fear of rejection. From the looks of it, rejection might be the only way you learn to accept yourself because with close inspection you might notice how much of a gem you are. Only you will live with you forever, so once you learn to be yourself and accept yourself, the easier it'll be for you.