Sublime

Un soir, sur la route de Walden, je rejoignis l’un de mes concitoyens, qui avait acquis ce qu’on appelle « un joli domaine », – bien que je ne l’aie moi-même jamais visité –, qui menait deux bestiaux au marché et qui me demanda comment je pouvais accepter de renoncer à toutes ces commodités indispensables de l’existence. Je lui répondis que j’étais

The surface of the earth is soft and impressible by the feet of men; and so with the paths which the mind travels. How worn and dusty, then, must be the highways of the world, how deep the ruts of tradition and conformity! I did not wish to take a cabin passage, but rather to go before the mast and on the deck of the world, for there I could best

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

Mon lieu de résidence était plus favorable, non seulement à la pensée, mais aux lectures sérieuses, qu’une université ; et bien que trop éloigné des bienfaits d’une bibliothèque ordinaire 58, j’étais plus que jamais sous l’influence de ces livres qui circulent autour du monde,

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

None can be an impartial or wise observer of human life but from the vantage ground of what we should call voluntary poverty.

I thought often and seriously of picking huckleberries; that surely I could do, and its small profits might suffice—for my greatest skill has been to want but little—so little capital it required, so little distraction from my wonted moods, I foolishly thought. While my acquaintances went unhesitatingly into trade or the professions, I contemplated

disappointed. But I would say to my fellows, once for all, As long as possible live free and uncommitted. It makes but little difference whether you are committed to a farm or the county jail.