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2 quotes by Ralph Waldo Emerson · clear filters

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Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist

Ralph Waldo Emersonverified·Self-Reliance, in Essays: First Series·1841

I will not follow where the path may lead, but I will go where there is no path, and I will leave a trail.

Ralph Waldo Emersonmisattributed·Wind-Wafted Wild Flowers, by Muriel Strode, in The Open Court, Volume XVII, Number 567·August 1903

Wrongly attributed

Universally attributed to Emerson, and it is in none of his essays, journals or letters. It is Muriel Strode, an American writer almost nobody has heard of, in the August 1903 issue of The Open Court. The rewriting is the interesting part: Strode wrote a vow in the first person about herself, and the version that circulates has been turned into an instruction issued to somebody else. Do not go where the path may lead is not what she said. I will not follow is.