Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson was a poet and essayist associated strongly with Romanticism and Transcendentalism. These movements were reactions to the industrialization of the society at the turn of the 18th century, and reactions especially against the world's increasing complexity. Emerson, along with other trancendentalist poets, believed that a respect for, or a return to, the simplicity of the beauty of nature was required to preserve human uniqueness.

Emerson especially railed against the increasingly conformation in society brought about by industrialization. Fearing especially the influence of religion, he wrote to encourage men to be different, and rejoice in their difference. Towards that end, he wrote,

"Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist," and,

"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by petty statesmen."

These were both in his famous Essay, "Self Reliance."