Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.
To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.
RE Ralph Waldo EmersonEssayist & poet · 1803–1882What this quote means
Staying true to yourself against constant pressure to conform is a real and hard-won achievement — perhaps the greatest of all.
Context
American essayist and leader of Transcendentalism, championing self-reliance and the quiet authority of the individual.
This line is among the quotes by Ralph Waldo Emerson that readers return to on wisdom — a small, portable reminder to carry into the morning.
Keep going
Related quotes
We come nearest to the great when we are great in humility.
Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance.