"Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the humanity of every one of its members. The virtue in most request is conformity. Self-reliance is its aversion. It loves not realities and creators, but names and customs. Whoso would be a human being must be a nonconformist. Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. I am ashamed to think how easily we capitulate to badges and names, to large societies and dead institutions. What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think. Insist on yourself; never imitate. That which each can do best, none but his Maker can teach him. No person yet knows what it is, nor can, till that person has exhibited it. What is the master who could have taught Shakespeare? Where is the master who could have instructed Franklin, or Washington, or Bacon, or Newton? Every person is unique. Is not a person better than a town? Nothing can bring you peace but yourself."
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Photo: A single white Sky Pilot flower blossoms in a sea of the usual purple members of the same species; Snowy Range, Medicine Bow National Forest, WY; July 2, 2014
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