Rettelser

“To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men, — that is genius.” is one of the first sentence of Emerson's essay.

This thought will be repeated several times in the rest of the text, being one of the connecting thread of it.

Emerson is clearly against conformity: “Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist.” For him, conforming equal to losing your soul, and being passive, with no backbone, no guts and no character.

It also means giving up, because if we acted like society want us to, we will give up whenever things get a little rough.

People's fear of failure keeps them secluded, and they lost their connections to themselves.