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About this quote

What does it mean?
Life should be lived for its own sake and intrinsic value, not as a performance for others.
In plain terms
Live your own life instead of performing for an audience.
What can you take from it?
Live authentically for yourself rather than seeking validation from others.

Where it applies

  • career choices
  • social media
  • personal relationships

Putting it to work

  • set personal goals
  • ignore critics
  • define own success

Questions to consider

  • Are you living for yourself or others?
  • What does an authentic life look like?

Another view

Social life inherently involves interaction and mutual observation.

More from Ralph Waldo Emerson

  1. Let not a man guard his dignity, but let his dignity guard him.

    Permalink to quote #294
  2. Salvation would not be a question of accepting a creed, but of acquiring insight.

    Permalink to quote #296
  3. It is an amiable illusion, which the shape of our planet prompts, that every man is at the top of the world.

    Permalink to quote #293

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