Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes

It is useless to advise solitude for everyone; one must be strong enough to endure it and to work alone.

A man can be himself only so long as he is alone, and if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom, for it is only when he is alone that he is really free.

I have an aversion to being mislabeled. Here's a label I'd accept: I'm an 'individual.' I'm someone who can't follow, and doesn't want to lead.

You must learn to exist with no religion, no country, no allies. You must learn to live alone in silence.

I don't belong to anyone.

I'm in the loners' society. I don't want to classify myself as anything.

When a man cuts himself absolutely adrift from custom, what an astonishingly light spar floats him! How few his wants are, after all!

Men have been taught that it is a virtue to stand together. But the creator is the man who stands alone.

Any man who is really a man must learn to be alone in the midst of others, to think alone for others, and, if necessary, against others.

Be an outcast. Be pleased to walk alone.

We are all alone, born alone, die alone, and -- in spite of True Romance magazines -- we shall all someday look back on our lives and see that, in spite of our company, we were alone the whole way. I do not say lonely -- at least, not all the time -- but essentially, and finally, alone. This is what makes your self-respect so important, and I don't see how you can respect yourself if you must look in the hearts and minds of others for your happiness.

If he must be alone, he would make solitude his armor.

I have never belonged wholeheartedly to country or State, to my circle of friends or even to my own family... Such isolation is sometimes bitter, but I do not regret being cut off from the understanding and sympathy of other men. I lose something by it,to be sure, but I am compensated for it in being rendered independent of the customs, opinions and prejudices of others, and am not tempted to rest my peace of mind upon such shifting foundations.

Society, to be sure, does not like this very well; it saith, Whoso goes to walk alone, accuses the whole world; he declares all to be unfit to be his companions; it is very uncivil, nay, insulting; Society will retaliate.

This is my philosophy: I prefer to stay out of the public eye. I love freedom.

There’s a greatness in not caring what people think

But there it is: Everyone is alone, for life, and maybe that's not such a bad thing.

The hallmark of courage in our age of conformity is the capacity to stand on one's own convictions - not obstinately or defiantly

Be independent of the good opinion of other people.

Why would I care what other people are thinking? I don't care what an audience thinks of me.

What I was reading was already part of my psyche, but finally someone else was saying it's okay to walk alone.

Solitude is independence.

I have an independent streak. You know, it's kind of hard to tell a independent woman what to do.

A damn independent boy; independent as a hog on ice.

I don't like people telling me what to do. I'm very independent.