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About this quote

What does it mean?
Letting go of ego allows a person to find their true self.
In plain terms
Giving up pride helps you understand who you really are.
What can you take from it?
Humility leads to self-understanding.

Where it applies

  • personal reflection
  • spiritual guidance
  • self-help

Putting it to work

  • practice humility
  • reflect on ego
  • seek authenticity

Questions to consider

  • What part of yourself do you need to let go?
  • How does ego block self-knowledge?

Another view

The statement assumes self-renunciation is always necessary for self-realization.

More from Ralph Waldo Emerson

  1. The sublime is excited in me by the great stoical doctrine, Obey thyself.

    Permalink to quote #1
  2. None believeth in the soul of man, but only in some man or person old and departed.

    Permalink to quote #3
  3. The imitator dooms himself to hopeless mediocrity. The inventor did it because it was natural to him, and so in him it has a charm. In the imitator something e…

    Permalink to quote #4

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