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Henry David Thoreau

Philosopher
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Our life is frittered away by detail... simplify, simplify.
Be true to your work, your word, and your friend.
If I knew for a certainty that a man was coming to my house with the conscious design of doing me good, I should run for my life.
Talk of mysteries! — Think of our life in nature, — daily to be shown matter, to come in contact with it, — rocks, trees, wind on our cheeks! The solid earth! The actual world! The common sense! Contact! Contact! Who are we? Where are we?
However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names. It is not so bad as you are. It looks poorest when you are richest. The fault-finder will find faults even in paradise. Love your life, poor as it is. You may perhaps have some pleasant, thrilling, glorious hours, even in a poorhouse. The setting sun is reflected from the windows of the almshouse as brightly as from the rich man's abode; the snow melts before its door as early in the spring. I do not see but a quiet mind may live as contentedly there, and have as cheering thoughts, as in a palace.
From Walden or, Life in the Woods
If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment.
From I to Myself: An Annotated Selection from the Journal of Henry D. Thoreau
It is not worth the while to let our imperfections disturb us always.
Our life is frittered away by detail... simplify, simplify.
Be true to your work, your word, and your friend.
If I knew for a certainty that a man was coming to my house with the conscious design of doing me good, I should run for my life.
Talk of mysteries! — Think of our life in nature, — daily to be shown matter, to come in contact with it, — rocks, trees, wind on our cheeks! The solid earth! The actual world! The common sense! Contact! Contact! Who are we? Where are we?
However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names. It is not so bad as you are. It looks poorest when you are richest. The fault-finder will find faults even in paradise. Love your life, poor as it is. You may perhaps have some pleasant, thrilling, glorious hours, even in a poorhouse. The setting sun is reflected from the windows of the almshouse as brightly as from the rich man's abode; the snow melts before its door as early in the spring. I do not see but a quiet mind may live as contentedly there, and have as cheering thoughts, as in a palace.
From Walden or, Life in the Woods
If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment.
From I to Myself: An Annotated Selection from the Journal of Henry D. Thoreau
It is not worth the while to let our imperfections disturb us always.
Our life is frittered away by detail... simplify, simplify.
Be true to your work, your word, and your friend.
If I knew for a certainty that a man was coming to my house with the conscious design of doing me good, I should run for my life.
Talk of mysteries! — Think of our life in nature, — daily to be shown matter, to come in contact with it, — rocks, trees, wind on our cheeks! The solid earth! The actual world! The common sense! Contact! Contact! Who are we? Where are we?
However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names. It is not so bad as you are. It looks poorest when you are richest. The fault-finder will find faults even in paradise. Love your life, poor as it is. You may perhaps have some pleasant, thrilling, glorious hours, even in a poorhouse. The setting sun is reflected from the windows of the almshouse as brightly as from the rich man's abode; the snow melts before its door as early in the spring. I do not see but a quiet mind may live as contentedly there, and have as cheering thoughts, as in a palace.
From Walden or, Life in the Woods
If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment.
From I to Myself: An Annotated Selection from the Journal of Henry D. Thoreau
It is not worth the while to let our imperfections disturb us always.
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