Ralph Waldo Emerson
“To be great is to be misunderstood.”
“Self-Reliance,” Essays: First Series, 1841
Documented source
Source
Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Self-Reliance,” Essays: First Series (1841)
Date
1841
Wording
Exact
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About this line
“Self-Reliance” is one long argument that conformity is the enemy of genius. This is its sharpest edge — not consolation for the misunderstood, but a warning: trust your own mind over the crowd’s and being misunderstood is guaranteed. Pythagoras, Socrates, Jesus, Luther, Copernicus, Galileo — Emerson names them all in the next sentence.
Why we carry this line
Name someone you consider great who is not misunderstood. I’ll wait. And that’s why the quote found its way to Quoteiac.
