Trust yourself to produce original works, advised Emerson:
Insist on yourself; never imitate. Your own gift you can present every moment with the cumulative force of a whole life’s cultivation; but of the adopted talent of another you have only an extemporaneous half possession. (Quoted from Essay II: “Self-reliance,” page 75 in Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson (first series). 1895. Philadelphia: Henry Altemus.)
For a brief biography of Ralph Waldo Emerson, click here.
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