Walden or, Life in the Woods (9).

Henry David Thoreau. New York: Literary Classics of the United States, Inc. 1854 (1985).

Why read it? The desire to live close to nature without dependence on material goods. Describes the changing seasons. Offers interesting reflections on modern life.

Quotes and Ideas.

“We need the tonic of wildness.” p. 575.

“Every man is the lord of a realm [his mind] beside which the earthly empire of the czar is but a petty state.” p. 578.

“I left the woods for as good reason as I went there: Perhaps it seemed to me that I had several more lives to live and could not spare any more time for that one.” p. 579.

“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….”. p. 580.

“If you have built castles in the air…put the foundations under them.” p. 580.

“…in this part of the world it is considered a ground for complaint if a man’s writings admit of more than one interpretation.” p. 581.

“While England endeavors to cure the potato-rot, will not any endeavor to cure the brain-rot, which prevails so much more widely and fatally?” p. 581.

“Let everyone mind his own business, and endeavor to be what he was made.” p. 581.

“Say what you have to say, not what you ought.” p. 583.

“However mean your life is, meet it and live it.” p. 583.

“The fault-finder will find faults even in Paradise.” p. 583.

“Things do not change; we change.” p. 583.

“Men are all on a committee…and hourly expect a speech from somebody.” p. 584.

“Only that day dawns to which we are awake.” p. 587.

The End.