An epigraph is a quotation placed at the beginning of a work or a chapter."Self-Reliance" was published in 1841 in a collection entitled Essays. In 1844, Emerson published a second collection. The essay urges readers to trust their own intuition and common sense rather than automatically following popular opinion
The epigraphs to Emerson's essay "self-reliance" all somehow deal with independence and self-reliance.