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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“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“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 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“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 →
“However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names.”
— Henry David Thoreau Primary source“One thing I have learned in a long life: that all our science, measured against reality, is primitive and childlike—and yet it is the most precious thing we have.”
— Albert Einstein Primary source“My life used to be full of everything. Now if you aren’t with me I haven’t a thing in the world.”
— Ernest Hemingway Primary source“The reward of a thing well done, is to have done it.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson Primary source