would u agree with ralph waldo emerson?

Question

would u agree with emersons imperative to "trust thyself"? why or why not?

Answer 1

Yes. You might trust yourself to seek advice before you make a decision. On other occasions, you might make the decision without consulting anyone. Either way, you are trusting yourself to do the right thing each time.

Answer 2

Absolutely. Whom else can you trust? Only you can truly know what your self-interest is, and the amount of self-sacrifice and suffering that you can endure. If you do not trust yourself, then sooner or later (often sooner) your own self will be back to accuse you. I'm 53 years old, and I learned this through hard experience in my twenties.

Trusting yourself does not mean that you are self-righteous, or that you feel you have nothing to learn from others and from your own experience. On the contrary! If you trust yourself, there is an absolute imperative to evaluate your own behavior with an honest critical eye, learn from every mistake you make, and grasp onto every bit of wisdom others can offer you. If you do not do this, how can you trust yourself?

Self-trust also requires study: study of people around you, evaluating consequences of various actions over the long term, study of literature, religion, philosophy. At the same time, you must be forgiving and understanding of yourself, without minimizing the harm you may have done to yourself and others. Self trust also involves making amends when you make mistakes and do wrong to others and yourself. Only a person who can make amends can be trusted.

I personally think that people who make a lifelong practice of not trusting themselves, but instead put their trust in some "other," (a religious leader, a parent, a political leader, and a spouse are frequent "others") are being lazy and irresponsible with their own free will, and with the gifts of judgment, compassion, and conscience that they have been given.

Not only did Emerson believe in self-trust, but so did Shakespeare. As Polonius tells his son in "Hamlet": "...this above all else, to thine own self be true, and it shall follow as the night the day, thou canst not be false to any man."

Answer 3

Yes and no--it depends on the context.