10 famous lines from Henry David Thoreau, word for word from the original text
Henry David Thoreau's 1854 account of two years living simply in a cabin by Walden Pond. Its lines on simplicity, solitude and living deliberately have inspired readers for generations.
“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.”
— Walden, Economy · about 2% into the book
“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life”
— Walden, Where I Lived, and What I Lived For · about 25% into the book
“Our life is frittered away by detail.”
— Walden, Where I Lived, and What I Lived For · about 25% into the book
“Simplify, simplify.”
— Walden, Where I Lived, and What I Lived For · about 25% into the book
“If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.”
— Walden, Conclusion · about 90% into the book
“Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.”
— Walden, Conclusion · about 91% into the book
“Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations.”
— Walden, Reading · about 29% into the book
“I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude.”
— Walden, Solitude · about 38% into the book
“Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in.”
— Walden, Where I Lived, and What I Lived For · about 27% into the book
“Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.”
— Walden, The Pond in Winter · about 78% into the book
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One of the best-known lines from Walden is: “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” (Economy).
Yes. Every quote on this page is copied word for word from the public-domain text of Walden on Project Gutenberg, with the chapter it appears in — so you can find it in your own copy.
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