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Ralph Waldo Emerson – Character

Society is frivolous and shreds its day into scraps, its conversation into ceremonies and escapes. But if I go to see an ingenious man, I shall think myself poorly entertained if he give me nimble pieces of benevolence and etiquette; rather he shall stand stoutly in his place and let me apprehend, if it were only his resistance, and know that I have encountered a new and positive quality – great refreshment for both of us.

It is much that he does not accept the conventional opinions and practice. His non conformity will remain a goad and a remembrancer and every inquirer will have to dispose of him, in the first place. There is nothing real or useful that is not a seat of war.... The uncivil unavailable man, who is a problem and a threat to society, whom it cannot let pass in silence but must either worship or hate – and to whom all parties feel related, both the leaders of opinion and the obscure and eccentric – he helps.

The wise man not only leaves out of his thought the many, but leaves out the few. Fountains, the self moved, the absorbed, the commander because he is commanded, the assured, the primary – they are good; for these announce the instant presence of supreme power.