I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.
Thoreau moved to his cabin at Walden Pond on 4 July 1845 and stayed until September 1847. The sentence goes on, “I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear.”
I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude.
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.
Not till we are lost, in other words not till we have lost the world, do we begin to find ourselves, and realize where we are and the infinite extent of our relations.
A thing of beauty is a joy for ever: / Its loveliness increases; it will never / Pass into nothingness;
I have walked that long road to freedom. I have tried not to falter; I have made missteps along the way. But I have discovered the secret that after climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.
All the world’s a stage, / And all the men and women merely players;