Q0111

Ralph Waldo Emerson

A verified English rendering from the curated archive.

English

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.
Thinker Ralph Waldo Emerson
School Transcendentalism
Source Self-Reliance
Theme Authenticity
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source context

This English passage is associated with Self-Reliance, within the tradition of Transcendentalism. The wording below is a verified rendering prepared for careful reading rather than a claim of unique translation authority.

A short reading

Read in the register of authenticity, the sentence asks the reader to test an assumption rather than to collect a slogan. In Ralph Waldo Emerson's wider work, similar claims are usually offered as prompts for judgment: what would have to be true for the sentence to hold, and what would follow if it did?

How to cite this quotation

APA: Ralph Waldo Emerson. (n.d.). A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0111

MLA: Ralph Waldo Emerson. “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0111.

Chicago: Ralph Waldo Emerson. “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0111.

Same thinker

More from Ralph Waldo Emerson

  1. Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.
  2. To be great is to be misunderstood.
  3. Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.
  4. Every sweet has its sour; every evil its good.
  5. For everything you have missed, you have gained something else; and for everything you gain, you lose something else.

All quotations by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Same theme

More on authenticity

  1. How one becomes what one is.
  2. Despair is the sickness unto death — the self's refusal to be itself.
  3. Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.
  4. The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.
  5. Despair is not to will to be oneself — or else to will to be oneself.

Browse the authenticity theme