Though the whole world should praise him, he would not be stimulated to greater endeavour, and though the whole world should condemn him, he would not be depressed. So fixed was he in the difference between the internal judgement of himself and the external judgement of others.
The effect of life in society is to complicate and confuse our existence, making us forget who we really are by causing us to become preoccupied with what we are not.
Those who are fond of praising men to their faces are also fond of damning them behind their backs.
Ralph Waldo Emerson·1841For nonconformity the world whips you with its displeasure. And therefore a man must know how to estimate a sour face.
Seneca·65 ADI have never wished to cater to the crowd; for what I know, they do not approve, and what they approve, I do not know.
Ralph Waldo Emerson·1841Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.
