Nancy's Blog

"For nonconformity the world whips you with displeasure. And therefore a man must know how to estimate a sour face." Emerson is saying that the world has beat so many people down that they no longer need to face "sour face". The world throws s many things your way some good and some bad but people no longer need to fake a reaction because it's all real. " If we cannot at once rise to the sanctity of obedience and faith, let us at least resist our temptations..." Emerson is trying to say that if we can't be holy, obedient and faithful then we can at least resist all the bad stuff it might be pushing us to. " Society is a wave. The wave does not move onward, but the water of which it is compressed does not. "

"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines." "To be great is to be misunderstood." Speak your mind and if no one understands you then it doesn't matter since you understand. Being okay with the idea of not being understood is something a lot of people are okay with. They don't care about other people understanding them because they understand themselves and that's enough for them. Emerson says you don't have to be great or grand but you can't help being great or grand in some ways. For example, you don't have to be famous to be someone's role model or someone they look up to. You also don't need to be famous to make an impact on someone's life and how they view everything around them.

"Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind." Emerson believes that we're all good. Emerson says that he isn't against charity but he's against people giving to charity for the sole purpose of looking good to other people. I think that if someone really cared about something then they would genuinely try to improve it not for vanity but because it's important to them. Emerson said that its hard to be yourself while in a room full of people telling you to be someone else. For nonconformity the world whips you with its displeasure." Most people don't pay close attention. We care more about the things right in front of us that we don't notice or care about what's happening around us. He also mentioned that we don't speak our minds as often as we should. We need to speak in order to feel heard and understood.

We choose what we pay attention to. When we choose to focus on one thing we choose to not focus on everything else. We make that one thing a priority over all the other stuff. 180 years ago Emerson predicted that we teenagers would be afraid to ask questions or simply share our input. He was right considering when Dr. Preston asks the class if we have any questions usually no one will raise their hand. Simply because we are terrified of being judged for what we have to say. We care so much about the opinions of others that we close ourselves up and try not to do something that will put us out there.

”Our acts our angels are, or good or ill” Emerson doesn’t just want to appeal to our minds but also to our hearts. Emerson is saying that your belief in yourself is genius. Even if people don't agree with you they will still admire you, respect you, and count on you to be honest. When you imitate  someone you just kill yourself. When you listen to someone else more than you do to your own mind then you kill a part of yourself. If you want something you have to work to get it. You can't just sit around and expect it to show up right in front of you. If you don't work for the things you want then who will.