Ralph Waldo Emerson published his first major essay collection in 1841, and the lines in it have been circulating ever since. “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds” may be the most quoted, most applied, and most misunderstood line he ever wrote. Close behind it is “To be great is to be misunderstood” — a line that has been used to justify everything from artistic ambition to conspiracy thinking. Getting Emerson right requires understanding what he was arguing against.
Self-Reliance and Its Historical Context
“Self-Reliance” (1841) was written against a specific cultural atmosphere: the deference to European culture, classical authority, and received opinion that Emerson believed was stunting American intellectual life. He was not arguing for individualism as an abstract principle — he was arguing against a specific kind of intellectual timidity that disguised itself as humility or respect for tradition.
The “hobgoblin” line appears in this context: “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.” The word “foolish” is doing essential work. Emerson is not attacking consistency as such — he is attacking the fear of changing one’s mind when evidence or reflection demands it. The line has been routinely quoted to justify the opposite of what it argues: using it to defend never changing one’s position is precisely the “foolish consistency” he was criticizing.
The Transparent Eyeball and What It Actually Means
Emerson’s most unusual image is from his 1836 essay “Nature”: “I become a transparent eyeball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or parcel of God.” This passage has been parodied — Christopher Cranch drew a cartoon of a giant eyeball on legs — and quoted seriously as evidence of Emerson’s mysticism.
- The passage describes a specific experience in a forest: a feeling of dissolution of the self into the natural world.
- Emerson was describing a state, not prescribing a practice. It is phenomenological description, not religious instruction.
- The image is strange enough that it resists comfortable quotation — which may be why it is more often cited as an example of Emerson’s eccentricity than as a line to live by.
Emerson’s Influence on How We Quote
Emerson was deeply interested in the nature of great sayings. His essay “Quotation and Originality” (1876) argues that originality is not the absence of sources but the transformation of them: “All minds quote. Old and new make the warp and woof of every moment. There is no thread that is not a twist of these two strands.”
He was also skeptical of the authority that quotation confers. In “Self-Reliance”: “I hate quotations. Tell me what you know.” This line is quoted constantly, which is either ironic or entirely consistent with his argument — depending on whether the person quoting it is thinking or just citing an authority.
The Line About Trust
“Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.” This is one of Emerson’s most direct prescriptions, and it appears early in “Self-Reliance.” Like most of his best lines, it works through compression: the metaphor of the iron string suggests something both fundamental and resonant — the deepest structural note that a person can play. The directness is unusual for Emerson, who more often circles his arguments than states them directly. When he chose to be direct, the lines survived.