“ ...is not Nature, rightly read, that of which she is commonly taken to be the symbol merely? ”
The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation. From the desperate city you go into the desperate country, and have to console yourself with the bravery of minks and muskrats. A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind. There is no play in them, for this comes after work. But it is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things..
~ Henry David Thoreau
I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours..
The cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.
It is not worth the while to let our imperfections disturb us always.
