Misunderstood In Emerson's Self Reliance

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To Be Great is To Be Misunderstood
In Emerson’s Self Reliance, he states “to be great is to be misunderstood”. He also mentions some famous people who are thought to be great by the eyes of the masses. These considered great people are Galileo Galilei, Martin Luther, Pythagoras, Socrates, Nicolaus Copernicus, and Sir Isaac Newton. All of these men have done at least one thing to change the course of history, setting a foundation on all of the great things we have today.
Galileo Galilei discovered that Earth and every other planet in the this solar system orbited the sun. It was formerly believed that Earth was the center of the universe and that everything revolved around us. The church and everyone else opposed Galileo’s idea, so he was punished for claiming the church wasn’t right. He was considered unhinged and was put under house arrest. It wasn’t until Copernicus’s discovery that proved everyone that Galileo was right. I believe the reason Emerson included Galileo in his spiel on greatness because even though he was considered crazy, people sent him death threats, and he was put under house arrest, his beliefs didn’t shake and he didn’t let the majority sway what his research proved. Galileo was misunderstood since his beliefs didn’t align with what …show more content…
He also did research and found that the sun, rather than the Earth, was the center of our universe. His title was a renaissance-era mathematician and astronomer, yet no one believed him. When he went to the public with his ideas, which had proof to back it up, society shunned him. He also made the big discovery that the Earth was in fact, a sphere, not flat. It took a long time for people to realize his research was correct and he was indeed telling the truth. He was misunderstood by the general public for most of his life, but his hard work and dedication kept him firm in his beliefs which has been universalized and
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