Thoughts from Emerson

I'm reading a collection of the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson.  I find them very relevant to us, here and now, even though he wrote a in the 19th century - instead of the 21st.

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.

To be great is to be misunderstood.

The voyage of the best ship is a zigzag line of a hundred tacks.


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.

I will not hide my tastes or aversions.
I will so trust that what is deep is holy, that I will do strongly before the sun and moon whatever inly rejoices me and the heart appoints.


I cannot sell my liberty and my power to save their sensibility.