..."Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist." "No law can be sacred to me but that of my own nature." "I shun father and mother and wife and brother when my genius calls me." "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." "An institution is the lengthened shadow...

...able to say of us, "If I know your sect, I anticipate your argument." Rather we should be able to say, "I shun father and mother, and wife and brother, when my genius calls me." We believe that the Jewish home is the nursery for the perpetuation of idiosyncrasies which tend to...

...tell apart. But in moods like these it is useful to recall two further sentences from "SelfReliance": "Your goodness must have some edge to it, — else...the doctrine of love, when that pules and whines." Against the bureaucrats of sexual, racial, ethnic, and religious purity, who invoke with such misleading...

...points out in "Emerson and the Virtues,"38 even those who did belong to Emerson did not fare better: I shun father and mother and wife and brother when...genius calls me. I would write on the lintels of the door post, Whim. I hope it is somewhat better than whim at last, but we cannot spend the day in explanation....

...last reference to Emerson evokes another aspect of genius — singleminded dedication to one's work: "I shun father and mother and wife and brother, when my genius calls me." Once again the image which Emerson evokes refers to a high level of self-esteem, in this case, the...

...Such a liberatory figure would be so socially disengaged as to hold even his own kin of small account: "I shun father and mother and wife and brother when my genius calls me."46 But he would in the end enjoy the fullest reward for his aloofness, since he would be "exercising...

...violent shunning, whereas Emerson's and Thoreau's worlds begin with or after the shunning of others ("I shun father and mother and wife and brother when my genius calls me") and typically depict the "I" just beside itself. The interest of the connection is that all undertake...

...namely, believe his own thought, express his own life, be not only "Man Thinking " but Man Acting. "Your goodness must have some edge to it else it is none . . . Do your work and I shall know you. Do your work, and you shall reinforce yourself . . . Every...

...variously as Spontaneity, Instinct, and Whim. Describing his own creative method, Emerson proudly declares: "I shun father and mother and wife and brother when...me. I would write on the lintels of the door-post, Whim."34 Alcott situates her protagonist within this discourse of creative individualism by introducing...

...this sense. The key passage in "Self-Reliance" (already quoted in chapter 10) is a necessary severity: Your goodness must have some edge to it, else it is...me. I would write on the lintels of the door-post, "Whim." I hope it is somewhat better than whim at last, but we cannot spend the day in explanation....