2 quotations linked to Life Without and Life Within by or associated with Margaret Fuller, with source notes, explanations and related topics.
Self-reliance, inward worth, literature, art, social criticism, dignity and the development of the individual mind.
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“For the soul seeks not adorers, but peers.”
Respectful relationship is distinguished from worship or dependency: a developed person seeks equals capable of intelligent sympathy rather than admirers who surrender judgment.
Source note: Life Without and Life Within, in Fuller’s essay discussion of Goethe and the artistic mind; the line contrasts genuine peers with mere worshippers.
“There is reason and reality in some degree of self-reliance.”
Self-reliance becomes credible when it grows from tested knowledge of what one can actually endure and do, rather than from empty confidence or social display.
Source note: Life Without and Life Within, “The Poor Man”; Fuller argues that difficult experience can produce realistic knowledge of one’s resources and a grounded degree of self-reliance.