Self-reliance is a personal moral system that is often associated with the Transcendentalist movement of the 19th century. Both Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson were strict adherents of this philosophy.

So what is self-reliance? As you may have guessed from the name, it is the ability to rely fully on yourself, without requiring the constant aid or help of others. It is also the idea that we shouldn’t conform to the expectations of society, but rather to follow our own hearts and minds.

Probably the most thorough statement of the philosophy of self-reliance is in Ralph Waldo Emerson’s 1841 essay “Self-Reliance”. Emerson warns us that to conform to society and to abandon our ideals will ultimately lead to an unhappy and unfulfilled life.

There are a few misconceptions about this philosophy that are worth sorting out. Emerson isn’t talking about any sort of anti-society attitude that one needs to adopt. He doesn’t mean that a man should become a hermit and spend his life living in the mountains. He doesn’t think that self-reliance should be a goal in and of itself.

Instead, self-reliance should be a starting point in our lives. Early in our lives, we should separate ourselves from the conformity of society and seek to blaze our own path. By doing this, we will learn how to think for ourselves, and we will be self-confident in our own abilities to always make it on our own. Once we have learned these lessons, we must come back to society and teach others. If we have made a fortune, we must use that for the betterment of society. If we have learned any useful skills, we must find others like ourselves whom we can teach and help. However, the only way to achieve this and to be able to provide value back to society is to first become self-sufficient ourselves.

Henry David Thoreau is another man who promoted this philosophy, particularly in his book Walden. In this book, Thoreau performs an experiment in which he goes into the woods and lives in a log cabin by himself for 2 years, 2 months, and 2 days. During this time, he wrote his book, in which he made many observations on the human condition and explained the effect of the experiment on his mind.

Read More: Is Self-Reliance Really a Good Philosophy?