noun
- reliance on oneself or one’s own powers, resources, etc.
noun
- reliance on one’s own abilities, decisions, etc
n.1883, from self- + reliance. First recorded in J.S. Mill. (1841) An essay by Ralph Waldo Emerson that advises the reader to “Trust thyself” and argues that “whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist.” It is the source of several well-known epigrams, such as “To be great is to be misunderstood” and “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.”