” What I must do is all that con­cerns me, not what the peo­ple think. This rule, equally ardu­ous in actual and intel­lec­tual life, may serve for the whole dis­tinc­tion between great­ness and mean­ness. It is the harder, because you will always find those who think they know what is your duty bet­ter than you know it.

It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opin­ion; it is easy in soli­tude to live after our own; but the great per­son is one who in the midst of the crowd keeps with per­fect sweet­ness the inde­pen­dence of soli­tude. Insist on your­self; never imitate.

Your own gift you can present every moment with the cumu­la­tive force of a whole life’s cul­ti­va­tion; but if the adopted tal­ent of another you have only an extem­po­ra­ne­ous, half possession.

Make the most of your­self, for that is all there is of you.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson