The Quotation IndexThe trusted reference for quotations and the sources behind them
Tag Tag Individuality
Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.
Ralph Waldo Emerson Self-Reliance · 1841

Quotes

“If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.”

Henry David Thoreau · Walden, 1849 · Primary source

“There is a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson · Self-Reliance, 1841 · Primary source

“Most marriages don’t add two people together. They subtract one from the other.”

Ian Fleming · Diamonds Are Forever, 1956 · Primary source

“The imitator dooms himself to hopeless mediocrity.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson · Harvard Divinity School Address, 1838 · Primary source

“Insist on yourself; never imitate.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson · Self-Reliance, 1841 · Primary source

“Every path but your own is the path of fate. Keep on your own track, then.”

Henry David Thoreau · Walden, 1849 · Primary source

“Follow your genius closely enough, and it will not fail to show you a fresh prospect every hour.”

Henry David Thoreau · Walden, 1849 · Primary source

“I desire that there may be as many different persons in the world as possible; but I would have each one be very careful to find out and pursue his own way, and not his father’s or his mother’s or his neighbor’s instead. The youth may build or plant or sail, only let him not be hindered from doing that which he tells me he would like to do.”

Henry David Thoreau · Walden, 1849 · Primary source

“Painters, writers, musicians are lonely people. So are statesmen and admirals and generals. But then, I added to be fair, so are criminals and lunatics. Let’s just say, not to be too flattering, that true Individuals are lonely.”

Ian Fleming · The Spy Who Loved Me, 1962 · Primary source

“Be yourself; no base imitator of another, but your best self. There is something which you can do better than another. Listen to the inward voice and bravely obey that. Do the things at which you are great, not what you were never made for.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson · No reliable source

“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson · No reliable source

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson · No reliable source

Related Tags

Marriage 6 Independence 29 Relationships 8 Self-reliance 48 Loneliness 2 Nonconformity 14 Isolation 3 Originality 9 Imitation 3 Authenticity 8 Self-trust 7 Conviction 5 Transcendentalism 32 Envy 3 Personal development 4 Talent 5 Inner conviction 3 Initiative 18 Social pressure 6 Self-direction 7 Personal pace 1 Personal conviction 1 Intuition 7 Discovery 6 Personal vocation 1