American Dream Comparison Excerpt #2
A foolish consistency is the
hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen
and philosophers and divines. With consistency,
a great soul has simply nothing to do. He
may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and
to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words
again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day. — 'Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.' — Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates,
and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and
Self Reliance
Ralph Waldo Emerson