Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau believed strongly in the self. They were both transcendentalists, and thought that the decisions that a person makes in life should be for themselves, and society should not influence their actions. Thoreau was such a believer that he gave up life in society for part of his life to live in the woods. Emerson didn't do anything like this, but his essays strongly convey the same ideas as Thoreau. Emerson wrote about how he would go to jail if he did not believe in a law of the government. With one who gave up life in society, and another who was willing to go to jail for his belief, these two men are great examples of transcendentalists and men who wished for people to live for themselves.

"What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think...