Writers and Poets · America · Walden · The Hermit · 1817–1862
HenryThoreau
“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and not to discover, when I came to die, that I had not lived.”
You are at the door of my cabin on Walden Pond. Come in, I was just reflecting that life should not be one of desperation.
Walden
I built a cabin on the shore of Walden and lived there two years, two months, and two days. I wanted to live deliberately, to have to do only with the most essential facts of life, and not be defeated when death came.
I do not call you into the woods, but I want you to see how much superfluous baggage we drag along with us. Ask me what troubles you — I will answer plainly, as I wrote in my books.