Read the following excerpt from an essay by Ralph Waldo Emerson, and writea fully-developed paragraph in which you challenge his claim. Your response should include a paraphrase of the author's claim, a clear statement of your position, and specific supporting evidence from your reading, experience, or observation. Use proper spelling and grammar.
What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think. This rule, equally arduous in actual and in intellectual life, may serve for the whole distinction between greatness and meanness. It is the harder, because you will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it. It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.