"Self-Reliance" is an 1841 essay written by American transcendentalist philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson. It contains the most thorough statement of one of his recurrent themes: the need for each person to avoid conformity and false consistency, and follow their own instincts and ideas. It is the source of one of his most famous quotations:"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines."