I also like R. W. Emerson: "In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts: they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty. Great works

I also like R. W. Emerson: "In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts: they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty. Great works of art have no more affecting lesson for us than this. They teach us to abide by our spontaneous impression with good-humored inflexibility then most when the whole cry of voices is on the other side. Else, to-morrow a stranger will say with masterly good sense precisely what we have thought and felt all the time, and we shall be forced to take with shame our own opinion from another." - http://www.emersoncentral.com/selfreliance.htm http://www.emersoncentral.com/selfreliance.htm He focuses on the internal, personal implications of our thoughts rather than others' opinions of our thoughts. That is, it's more important to be true to yourself than to be true to what others think you should be about. Speaking of Shakespeare, one more I have to call out from Self Reliance: "Insist on yourself; never imitate. Your own gift you can present every moment with the cumulative force of a whole life's cultivation; but of the adopted talent of another, you have only an extemporaneous, half possession... Where is the master who could have taught Shakspeare? Where is the master who could have instructed Franklin, or Washington, or Bacon, or Newton? Every great man is a unique. The Scipionism of Scipio is precisely that part he could not borrow. Shakspeare will never be made by the study of Shakspeare. Do that which is assigned you, and you cannot hope too much or dare too much." (emphasis mine)