Self-Reliance
Emerson's essay on trusting your own judgment over custom and consistency, saved here as a sample of other highlights.
Highlights from Self-Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson, in Essays: First Series.
To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men, — that is genius.
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.