"The other terror that scares us from..." - Quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson
The other terror that scares us from self-trust is our consistency; a reverence for our past act or word, because the eyes of others have no other data for computing our orbit than our past acts, and we are loath to disappoint them.
More by Ralph Waldo Emerson
“The case wouldn't be overweight if you didn't have so many shoes. How many do you really need? This pair, for example, I swear you never even wore them.”
“To the men of this world, to the animal strength and spirits, to the men of practical power, whilst immersed in it, the man of ideas appears out of his reason. They alone gave reason.”
“In the presence of nature, a wild delight runs through the man, in spite of real sorrows.”
More on Consistency
“There will be an agreement in whatever variety of actions, so they be each honest and natural in their hour. For of one will, the actions will be harmonious, however unlike they seem. These varieties are lost sight of at a little distance, at a little height of thought. One tendency unites them all. The voyage of the best ship is a zigzag line of a hundred tacks. See the line from a sufficient distance, and it straightens itself to the average tendency.”
“I am persuaded that the world has been tricked into adopting some false and most pernicious notions about consistency - and to such a degree that the average man has turned the rights and wrongs of things entirely around and is proud to be "consistent," unchanging, immovable, fossilized, where it should be his humiliation.”
“Transport a handful of earth everyday and you will make a mountain.”
More on Self Trust
“Don't listen to friends when the Friend inside you says "Do this."”
“Nobody can give you wiser advice than yourself; you will never err if you listen to your own suggestions.”
“If one hesitates in his path, let him not proceed. Let him respect his doubts, for doubts, too, may have some divinity in them.”