Analyzing Self-Reliance

We analyzed Ralph Waldo Emerson´s Self-Reliance. Since we didn’t finish the text I cant say that we arrived to a definitive conclusion, but here are some that we reached as a group:

• People have to cultivate their own ideas, because none other but he himself knows what he can do if he doesn’t try.
• People are scared to say their thoughts because they might not be original, even when they are.
• We have to express our convictions, if not someone else will and we will be forced to take with shame our own opinions from another.
• You have to value your thoughts.

From this text the part I liked the most was: “To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men – this is genius. “

Although this was the phrase I liked the most, I think it is kind of confusing and still not sure what it means 100%.

I understand that if we believe with conviction our own thoughts they become real and if we speak them, they might influence the rest of the world. But I don’t believe that my own thoughts are true to all men, because they all have their own ideas.

I believe I think that there is a universal truth to everything, but we cant ever reach it, because we are interrupted by our own personal truth, which to me is also valid.