David Calhoun's Reviews > Self-Reliance and Other Essays
Self-Reliance and Other Essays (Dover Thrift Editions: Philosophy)
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Holy smokes. This is one of those rare things you hear about your whole life but put off because it sounds boring. Something hailed as a classic but something you are skeptical of being relevant for the current age.
But when it finally comes to you, and when you finally get the discipline to read it, it resonates and turns out to be just the thing you needed to read, right at that stage in your life.
This is an essay about self-reliance, not in the Thoreau sense, but being self-oriented even when in the crowd. Very existential at times since it has this "self vs crowd" aspect.
I was not sure I totally agreed with the essay. The part against travelling for amusement rubbed me the wrong way, maybe because I've been travelling a lot this year. But it challenged me, which is good.
But when it finally comes to you, and when you finally get the discipline to read it, it resonates and turns out to be just the thing you needed to read, right at that stage in your life.
This is an essay about self-reliance, not in the Thoreau sense, but being self-oriented even when in the crowd. Very existential at times since it has this "self vs crowd" aspect.
I was not sure I totally agreed with the essay. The part against travelling for amusement rubbed me the wrong way, maybe because I've been travelling a lot this year. But it challenged me, which is good.
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Reading Progress
October 25, 2017
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Started Reading
October 25, 2017
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October 25, 2017
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Finished Reading
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Karen
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Apr 17, 2019 03:02AM
This is from Rev. J. Roland Cole: Emerson put into great words so many wonderful thoughts about integrity vs. conformity, the courage to be one's self. I believe I remember that Emerson finally ended up saying that self-reliance was, ultimately, a reliance on princ iples. I believe Ralph Waldo expressed more great thoughts and important insights in incisive, convincing, and memorable words than any other writer or essayist.
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