SIR QUOTE ALOT

“It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.”

When you are alone and by yourself your thoughts flourish with your true identity and self. In solitude, we are comfortable enough with ourselves that we may explore the bounds of our minds and our inner individualism. However if put into a public setting, in which many people come together, the human being starts to worry about what other might think, how others might react, and whether or not they will be accepted for who they really are. You know inside yourself what you truly believe to be true. "To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all me--that is genius". However, some people put on a mask, in which they are able to withdraw and hide their true self. This is just the easy way out, just agreeing with something that you may not truly consider to be true, but act as you do because of the fear of rejection of the ideas that you hold so dearly to be true. This is the easiest way of “fitting in”. The key is bringing the ideas and thoughts that you keep so graciously in solitude out for the world to see. By doing this, you are presenting your true self to people, which if they take the time to do so, can learn to appreciate for its own uniqueness. You must be able to put yourself out there, and not care what others will think. "What I must do is all the concerns me, not what the people think". However, sometimes this does not happen. Usually a person whom everyone believes to be smart, and who has influence and power over many different people will express an idea, and you maybe forced by society to agree with it. This can happen just because of the fact that you don’t want to say something, and have an entire mob of people disagree with you. However, if you do not take the time and energy to express who you truly are, then how can you live a fulfilled life, knowing that you have left a big part of yourself out, and not given others that change to experience your true self? Emerson puts it perfectly when he says that we must combine our own ideology with that of the world surrounding us. However you do also want to consider the ideas that other people put out, because they have exhibited the courage to present their ideas that they have kept in solitude and put out for the world to perceive as they will. When you get the proper balance of recognition of good ideas, and the presentation of good ideas from your own monopoly, then you will achieve perfect sweetness and independence.

Quotes from Ralph Waldo Emerson's Self Reliance.