Reflecting on Self Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Reflecting on Self Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson “Let a man then know his worth, and keep things under his feet. Let him not peep or steal, or skulk up and down with the air of a charity-boy, a bastard, or an interloper, in the world which exists for him. But the man in the street, finding no worth in himself which corresponds to the force which built a tower or sculptured a marble god, feels poor when he looks on these. To him a palace, a statue, or a costly book have an alien and forbidding air, much like a gay equipage, and seem to say like that, 'Who are you, Sir?' Yet they all are his, suitors for his notice, petitioners to his faculties that they will come out and take possession. The picture waits for my verdict: it is not to command me, but I am to settle its claims to praise. That popular fable of the sot who was picked up dead drunk in the street, carried to the duke's house, washed and dressed and laid in the duke's bed, and, on his waking, treated with all obsequious ceremony like the duke, and assured that he had been insane, owes its popularity to the fact, that it symbolizes so well the state of man, who is in the world a sort of sot, but now and then wakes up, exercises his reason, and finds himself a true prince.” The above paragraph is full of inspirational wording. From the first sentence to the last Emerson puts so much heart into every word. I believe every person at some point fails to see all that he/she is worth. Emerson tells us to stand up and walk with pride and let fear go. He tells us to act the part and see our true worth. We are in this world that was created for us to live in. Everything in our world is for us to enjoy and appreciate. “But the man in the street finding no worth in himself which corresponds to the force which built a tower or sculptured marble god, feels poor when he looks on these.” We should never look upon any

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