In “Self-Reliance” (1841) Emerson urges readers to trust their own intuitions against conformity, tradition and the opinion of others. The self he means is not the ego but the soul’s access to the Over-Soul: to trust oneself is to trust the divine within. The essay became a charter of American individualism.
Self-Reliance
Emerson’s doctrine of trusting the inner voice, which he held to be the voice of the universal soul.