Self-Reliance

by Ralph Waldo Emerson

of

The soul created the

arts wherever they have flourished. It was in his own mind that the artist sought his model. It was an application of his own thought to the thing to be done and the conditions to be observed.

Insist on yourself; never imitate. Your own gift you can present every moment with the cumulative force of a whole life’s cultivation; but of the adopted talent of another, you have only an extemporaneous, half possession.

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

Do that which is assigned you, and you cannot hope too much or dare too much.

You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him find it within himself.

But that which a man is does always by necessity acquire, and what the man acquires is living property, which does not wait the beck of rulers, or mobs, or revolutions, or fire, or storm, or bankruptcies, but perpetually renews itself wherever the man breathes.

Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles.