Self-Reliance is an essay from 1841 authored by the American transcendentalist philosopher and essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson. It delivers a comprehensive exploration of one of Emerson’s central ideas: the importance of resisting conformity and embracing one’s own instincts and ideas. The essay includes one of his most well-known quotes: “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.”

Emerson highlights the value of everyday experiences, emphasizing that life is a cycle of “learning, forgetting, and relearning