“If a man believes and expects great things of himself, it makes no odds where you put him, or what you show him … he will be surrounded by grandeur.”

— Henry David Thoreau

Letter to Harrison Blake (20 May 1860); published in Familiar Letters (1865)
Context: Men and boys are learning all kinds of trades but how to make men of themselves. They learn to make houses; but they are not so well housed, they are not so contented in their houses, as the woodchucks in their holes. What is the use of a house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on? — If you cannot tolerate the planet that it is on? Grade the ground first. If a man believes and expects great things of himself, it makes no odds where you put him, or what you show him … he will be surrounded by grandeur. He is in the condition of a healthy and hungry man, who says to himself, — How sweet this crust is!

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Henry David Thoreau 385

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

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“If a man believes and expects great things of himself, it makes no odds where you put him, or what you show him … he will be surrounded by grandeur.”

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Henry David Thoreau 385

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