Named source · 1870

Society and Solitude Quotes by Ralph Waldo Emerson: Context & Meanings

2 quotations linked to Society and Solitude by or associated with Ralph Waldo Emerson, with source notes, explanations and related topics.

More by Ralph Waldo Emerson

About this source

Ralph Waldo Emerson’s 1870 essay collection Society and Solitude

Topics and ideas

Friendship, domestic life, self-trust, success, society, solitude, character and Emerson’s conduct-of-life reflections on inward confidence and social value.

Read the source

Open a public or archival text connected with these quotations

Use these links when you want to inspect the wording in its wider work or edition.

Primary / edition source · gutenberg.org ↗

Represented passages

2 quotations with source context and meaning

Source identified1

Read & copy

“Self-trust is the first secret of success.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Meaning & context

Emerson treats successful action as beginning with confidence that one has a real task and capacity of one's own, before public recognition or visible achievement arrives.

Source details

Society and Solitude, essay “Success”; Project Gutenberg #69258. Emerson immediately explains self-trust as believing that one is here “for cause” or for a task fitted to one's constitution, while warning that it does not mean rushing into a showy feat for spectators.

↓ Download image (JPG)

Source identified2