“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately…”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) 1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitionist
O_L1RU1
@O_L1RU1, member from March 5, 2023“The question is not what you look at, but what you see.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) 1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitionist
Variant: It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.
“How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) 1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitionist
August 19, 1851
Journals (1838-1859)
Variant: How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.
“True friendship can afford true knowledge. It does not depend on darkness and ignorance.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) 1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitionist
“Don't be afraid that your life will end, be afraid that it will never begin!”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) 1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitionist
Henry David Thoreau book Walden ou la vie dans les bois
Commonly misquoted, converted to imperative mood, as "Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined. As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler".
Walden (1854)
“Men are born to succeed, not to fail.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) 1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitionist
“I have a room all to myself; it is nature.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) 1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitionist
“There is no remedy for love but to love more.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) 1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitionist
Variant: The only remedy for love is to love more.
Henry David Thoreau book Walden ou la vie dans les bois
Source: Walden (1854)
Context: I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion. For most men, it appears to me, are in a strange uncertainty about it, whether it is of the devil or of God, and have somewhat hastily concluded that it is the chief end of man here to "glorify God and enjoy him forever."
“There is no evildoer who could not be made good for something.”
Jean Jacques Rousseau book The Social Contract
Source: The Social Contract
“We must powder our wigs; that is why so many poor people have no bread.”
Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) Genevan philosopher
“There is nothing better than the encouragement of a good friend.”
Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) Genevan philosopher