Nothing can bring you peace but yourself.
Ralph Waldo Emerson Essays: First Series, Self-Reliance (1841)
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When and why it was written
- When
- The closing lines of Self-Reliance, published in 1841.
- Why
- Emerson is warning against expecting good days to come from outside events.
What it means
Emerson ends his essay by taking peace out of the hands of fortune. A raise, a cure or good news may please us, but they do not settle us.
The settling is inside work, which is good news: it does not depend on anyone else.
Our reading of the passage cited above, not a quotation from a commentary.
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Essays: First Series, 1841
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