“Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.” This fully annotated edition of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s classic essay, Self-Reliance , includes: The original unabridged essay - In-depth summary analysis to help modern readers interpret Emerson’s text - Detailed author biography - Timeline of key events Self-Reliance was first published in 1841 in the essay collection Essays: First Series . It is American lecturer, essayist and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson’s most well-known and widely quoted work. It offers his most emphatic and comprehensive take on a recurring theme: the importance of individualism. Emerson famously calls upon his readers to reject demands for conformity and consistency and to “Trust thyself”. He argues that to live a truly meaningful and virtuous life, we must have the courage to overcome societal orthodoxy and to act on our inner voice.