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#171 Live In The World

"It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude."

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, 19th century Transcendental philosopher

It’s easy to go to a cave and be on your spiritual game.

It’s a WHOLE ‘nother thing to come back to the marketplace with open hands and an open mind—living with the perfect sweetness of solitude while in the midst of the crowd.

Let’s do it.

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The Complete Passage from Self-Reliance:

"What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think. This rule, equally arduous in actual and in intellectual life, may serve for the whole distinction between greatness and meanness. It is the harder, because you will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it. It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude."