The lines quoted from Ralph W. Emerson's "Self-Reliance" are part of a passage about maturity and identity. Emerson is saying that each person comes into a mature sense of self or full adult status when they accept who they are and do not make the mistake of envying another person. We live in ignorance of what is going on inside the other person so it would be an error to be jealous of what we think they have. Each person has unique value and must embrace their uniqueness; "he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion...."
If we turn our efforts toward trying to be someone we are not, we will sacrifice our identity. Because we have the autonomy to blaze our own trail, failure to do so would also be our responsibility. Thus he uses the heavily weighted term suicide, not just death. Emerson goes on to emphasize uniqueness:
The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried.
"Envy is ignorance, imitation is suicide," is a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay, "Self-Reliance, which was published in 1841.
This means that you should be your own person, be yourself, and be noteworthy. Know your own strengths and weaknesses, which make you unique and original and use these to become interesting, remarkable, and significant.
Do not look at other people and what they have. More importantly, do not compare yourself with other people, because that's when envy sets in. When you are envious of other people, of what they are, what they have, and what they have accomplished, you are revealing your ignorance of yourself, your strengths, and your uniqueness.
When you try to imitate other persons, you are denying and dismissing your own identity and your own person. The more you imitate others, the more your own person and uniqueness disappears, until you are unable to know who you really are anymore.
Instead, build up on your own unique traits and talents, build up on your strengths and chart your own path. There are no limits to what you can achieve. They are only limited by your own fears, hesitation, and self-doubt. Do not pay attention to what other people say about you. Choose who you want to be and do it.
Emerson, who wrote this in his essay "Self-reliance," is simply saying the following: be yourself. Don't worry about what other people are doing. Don't conform. Do what is right for you.
When he says "envy is ignorance," he means that it is a mistake to be jealous of what another person has or is doing. If you envy another person, it means you are ignorant or unaware of the deepest longings of your own soul. What another person has, or is, has nothing to do with what is right for you. Look inside yourself.
Emerson means the same thing when he writes, "imitation is suicide." When you imitate the life another person is leading, you may not being killing your body, but you are killing your soul. Emerson says that every individual is born with his own unique destiny planted in him by a divine power. Figure out what that destiny is. Follow it, no matter what other people say or do.
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