“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.”
Henry David Thoreau
Walden; or, Life in the Woods (Primary source)
Walden is Henry David Thoreau’s reflective account of his two-year experiment in simple living at Walden Pond, near Concord, Massachusetts. Written as a blend of memoir, social critique, and philosophical meditation, the book explores themes of self-reliance, mindfulness, and the relationship between humanity and nature.
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“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation. From the desperate city you go into the desperate country, and have to console yourself with the bravery of minks and muskrats. A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind. There is no play in them, for this comes after work. But it is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.”
Henry David Thoreau
“If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.”
— Henry David Thoreau Primary source“I was not born to be forced. I will breathe after my own fashion. Let us see who is the strongest.”
— Henry David Thoreau Primary source“Moreover, I, on my side, require of every writer, first or last, a simple and sincere account of his own life, and not merely what he has heard of other men’s lives.”
— Henry David Thoreau Primary source“I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”
— Henry David Thoreau Primary sourceMore quotes by Henry David Thoreau →
“Grace under pressure.”
— Ernest Hemingway Secondary source“Have you felt it, too? Have you seen how your best friends love everything about you—except the things that count? And your most important is nothing to them, nothing, not even a sound they can recognize.”
— Ayn Rand Primary source“If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.”
— Henry David Thoreau Primary source“How many seemingly impossible things have been accomplished by resolute men because they had to do, or die.”
— Napoleon Bonaparte Disputed