Quote of the day #3 – Thoreau

This has been my favorite quote since forever. I recall encountering it back in my junior high days, and deciding ‘that’s my favorite quote’. Back then I was seeing it as a challenge to take measures to ensure I wouldn’t be part of the masses. Now, however, I see that I’ve been unable to rise to the challenge, that my life is inexorably quietly desperate — and I’m somewhat comforted to have this quote as reassurance that most everyone is in the same boat.

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) is well-known as a proponent of a pure, simple, aware existence. His advice is ageless, but some of his language isn’t slick or hip. So, nowadays, rather than reading Thoreau, folks who want to simplify their lives probably turn to a magazine called ‘Real Simple’ which actually promotes the exact opposite (don’t get me started on how much that magazine irritates me) . . .

I hate to end on that note, so let’s take a look at another of Thoreau’s awesome quotes:

(I should not talk so much about myself if there were anybody else whom I knew as well. Henry David Thoreau. Walden)