Self-Reliance+by+Ralph+Waldo+Emerson-Period+7

Ralph Waldo Emerson: “Self-Reliance” (1841) (Taken from http://www.online-literature.com/emerson/588/)

"These are the voices which we hear in solitude, but they grow faint and inaudible as we enter into the world. Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members. Society is a joint-stock company, in which the members agree, for the better securing of his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater. The virtue in most request is conformity. Self-reliance is its aversion. It loves not realities and creators, but names and customs....

...What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think. This rule, equally arduous in actual and in intellectual life, may serve for the whole distinction between greatness and meanness. It is the harder, because you will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it. It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude."

Paraphrase & Transcendental Elements: They don't care what others think. Independence of Solitude. Transcendentalists enjoy solitude. There will always be people who think they know your duty better then you know it. Society ruins people and their beliefs. It is hard in society to maintain your beliefs.