Self-Reliance and Other Essays

Published in 1841, this is the book that gave American letters "Self-Reliance," Emerson's case for thinking your own thoughts instead of borrowing everyone else's — alongside "The American Scholar," "Compensation," and "Nature." It is argumentative, aphoristic, occasionally maddening, and still one of the most quoted books ever written by an American. Public domain, added to The Archive so members can read the writer who shaped how this country talks about individuality before they run into a hundred watered-down versions of him.\n\nRead the full text free at Project Gutenberg: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16643