1. “I am ashamed to think how easily we capitulate to badges and names, to large societies and dead institutions.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson Emerson believes in the importance of individuality but recognizes how quickly and easily we tend to be more apt to associate ourselves with a title or a label. He sees people as easily surrendering their own identity only to be defined by a larger group or perhaps more accepted label. Emerson is ashamed to see how people simply associate themselves with an outside group rather than find comfort in their own individual existence.