Emerson on consistency

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The Fairfield Review, An On-line Literary Magazine for the Global Community.

"CONSISTENCY is the hobgoblin of small

minds.” This popular saying is an oversimplified excerpt from Emerson’s more nuanced thought in his 184I essay “SeIf-Reliance”: “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.”

Verdict

Simplified Emerson.

The Quote Verifier: Who Said What, Where, and When By Ralph Keyes, St Martin’s Griffin, New York, pg 35, 2006.

This article is about the legendary creature. For other uses, see Hobgoblin (disambiguation). Hobgoblin is a term typically applied in folktales to a friendly or amusing goblin. The word seems to derive from 'Robin Goblin', abbreviated to 'hobgoblin', 'hob', or 'lob'. The name originally referred to that of a specific folkloric character Robin Goodfellow but has grown to be defined as a different species of goblin or fairy. The name is often interchangeable with "bugbear", "boogeyman", "bugaboo" or "bogie", and the term "hobgoblin" has grown to mean

a superficial object that is a source of fear or trouble.