“Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.”

— Henry David Thoreau

Misquotation of a line from Walden cited above, with the addition of a spurious ending. For this and other misattributions, see: The Henry D. Thoreau Mis-Quotation Page http://www.walden.org/thoreau/mis-quotations/ <br class="br">Misattributed

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them." by Henry David Thoreau?

Henry David Thoreau385

1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitio… 1817–1862

Related quotes

“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation.”

Henry David Thoreau book Walden ou la vie dans les bois

Source: Walden (1854), p.10

“Most men lead lives of quiet aspiration.”

Robert Sheckley book Can You Feel Anything When I Do This?

Can You Feel Anything When I Do This?

“Nowadays most men lead lives of noisy desperation.”

James Thurber (1894–1961) American cartoonist, author, journalist, playwright

"The Grizzly and the Gadgets", The New Yorker (date unknown); Further Fables for Our Time (1956); This statement is derived from one of Henry David Thoreau: "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation."
From Fables for Our Time and Further Fables for Our Time

“We are dead men. Dead men should be quiet in their graves, but they never are.”

Robert Jordan Winter's Heart

Lews Therin Telamon
Winter's Heart (9 November 2000)

“Most people go to their grave with their music inside them.”

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright

“The fact is that most gay men and women lead, or try to lead, ordinary lives indistinguishable from those of their neighbours.”

Michael Nava (1954) American writer

Source: Non-fiction, Created equal: Why gay rights matter to America (1994), p.53

“Truth advances, and error recedes step by step only; and to do to our fellow men the most good in our power, we must lead where we can, follow where we cannot, and still go with them, watching always the favorable moment for helping them to another step.”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

Comment on establishing the University of Virginia, in a letter to Thomas Cooper (7 October 1814); published in The Writings of Thomas Jefferson (1905) edited by Andrew Adgate Lipscomb and Albert Ellery Bergh, Vol VII, p. 200 http://books.google.com/books?id=jrSgJGp-B64C&pg=RA1-PA200&dq=%22A+professorship+of+theology+should+have+no+place+in+our+institution%22&ei=u65FR562EpqCpwLkk9XxBg <br class="br">1810s <br class="br">Context: I agree … that a professorship of Theology should have no place in our institution. But we cannot always do what is absolutely best. Those with whom we act, entertaining different views, have the power and the right of carrying them into practice. Truth advances, and error recedes step by step only; and to do to our fellow men the most good in our power, we must lead where we can, follow where we cannot, and still go with them, watching always the favorable moment for helping them to another step.