Emerson on the Essential Self
As I said before, I am reading The Site of Our Lives, by James S Hans. He quotes Emerson on page 45:
These are the voices which we hear in solitude, but they grow faint and inaudible as we enter into the world. Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of everyone one of its members. Society is a joint-stock company, in which the member agree, for the better securing of his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater. The virtue most request is conformity. Self-reliance is its aversion. It loves not realilties and creators, but names and customs.
No trackbacks yet.