In Section 5 of his writing on "Self-Reliance," Ralph Waldo Emerson makes a point that if you want to be a benefit to society -- to gather immortal...

In order to be a true individual, truly original, one must avoid conformity. Emerson is therefore skeptical of all institutions and traditions. The self-reliant individual does not mindlessly follow church doctrine or social traditions. The self-reliant person does not automatically accept a maxim or a "truth" simply because it has been called or labeled "good" by these institutions and traditions. The individual must examine what things are and not simply take it for granted that something is good because others claim it to be. 

Emerson goes on to say "Good and bad are but names very readily transferable to that or this; the only right is what is after my constitution; the only wrong what is against it." So, these acts must be more than "goodness" in name. They must be good in the individual's mind. His mental "constitution" is the authentic character of his mind. The truth that something is "good" is within himself. The act is truly good if he discovers it individually and not from some external source or tradition.