Quote of the Day

Coates reminded me of the brilliance of Emerson's Self Reliance:

These are the voices which we hear in solitude, but they grow faint and inaudible as we enter into the world. Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members. Society is a joint-stock company, in which the members agree, for the better securing of his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater. The virtue in most request is conformity. Self-reliance is its aversion. It loves not realities and creators, but names and customs.
Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist.

To this I say: yes. And note that this was written before any of the modern media; if one's inner voice became "faint and inaudible as we enter into the world" then, just imagine the problem now, when it's hard just to know if what you desire is because you actually desire it or because it's something you saw on TV, or online, or wherever.