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#90 Be Inconsistent
From: Self-RelianceDiscuss this Big Idea in the Forums!
Well, at least be willing and able to be inconsistent. It’s so easy for us to get locked into a way of thinking or to maintain an opinion simply because we strongly felt a certain way at one point. But, my God! If you can’t break free and give yourself the power to change your mind, your job, your strategy, your relationships, whatever…you, uh, are kinda screwed.
Love Emerson’s comments on the subject:
“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said today. - 'Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.' -- Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood."
Let’s concern ourselves with more than our shadow on the wall, shall we?
Besides. Who wants to be a hobgoblin, anyhoo?!!?
(btw: that quote is from Emerson’s GENIUS essay, Self-Reliance. Although the 19th century prose can get a little rough at times, it's well worth the read and great lunch-break/weekend reading material. You can get it for free @ thinkArete.com.)
From: Self-RelianceDiscuss this Big Idea in the Forums!
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~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
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