Emerson argues that a person of independent judgement should not feel bound to maintain the same opinions simply for the sake of appearing consistent. His point is not that reliability or principle are unimportant, but that rigid attachment to past statements can prevent honest thought. A person should be willing to revise a view when reflection, experience or new understanding leads elsewhere.

Within Self-Reliance, the remark follows Emerson’s criticism of “foolish consistency”. He sees excessive concern with consistency as a form of dependence on reputation and public expectation, because people may continue defending an earlier position merely to avoid appearing contradictory. The “great soul”, by contrast, gives greater weight to present judgement than to maintaining a fixed image of itself. The quotation therefore supports Emerson’s wider defence of intellectual independence, self-trust and the freedom to change one’s mind without treating change itself as a failure.