Examples Of Emerson's Transcendentalism

A lot of quotes have inspired me over the years, many of which I will be writing about in this space. I choose to begin with a quote that touched a nerve. Emerson has a lot of inspirational sayings, but this one still motivates me everyday.

Society likes things defined. And since we humans live in a society that sets limits, we have definitions of what being successful means. An individual has to “make it in a particular line of work” or “follow a particular career path” in order to be termed successful. This attitude of society tends to limit our potential. Most of us never discover our true selves.

The other day I was reading a joke which said that in my country people become engineers first, and then decide what they want to do in life. Its reality. Parents here want their kids to be either a doctor or an engineer. They see their children as investments, that will give back multiples of what is spent on them. I don’t blame them, but I blame society as a whole for stereotyping us.
He wanted to make people realise that as individuals, each one of us has an enormous potential. But in order to realise it, we must follow the path of our choosing, and not the path society wants us to