Thoreau on Living Today
ELA/Grade 9
A SELECTION OF THOREAU QUOTATIONS
My profession is to always be on the alert to find God in nature, to know his lurking places, to attend all
the oratorios, the operas, in nature.
I went to the wood 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.
Man is the artificer of his own happiness.
If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.
Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.
...[A]ny man more right than his neighbors constitutes a majority of one already.
For an impenetrable shield, stand inside yourself.
Only that day dawns to which we are awake. There is more day to dawn. The sun is but a morning star.
The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.
If I should sell both my forenoons and afternoons to society, as most appear to do, I am sure there
would be nothing left worth living for. I trust that I shall never thus sell my birthright for a mess of
pottage.
Our life is frittered away by detail. An honest man has hardly need to count more than his ten fingers, or
in extreme cases he may add his ten toes, and lump the rest. Simplify, simplify, simplify! I say let your
affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count a half a dozen ,
and keep you accounts on your thumb-nail.
The ways by which you get money almost without exception lead downward.To have done anything by
which you earned money merely is to have been truly idle or worse.
Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new.
I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a
conscious endeavor.
In the long run men hit only what they aim at. Therefore, though they shall fail immediately, they had
better aim at something high.
PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF NORTH CAROLINA State Board of Education | Department of Public Instruction
AIG ~ IRP Academically and/or Intellectually Gifted Instructional Resources Project
Thoreau on Living Today
ELA/Grade 9
I wish to live ever as to derive my satisfactions and inspirations from the commonest events, every-day
phenomena, so that what my senses hourly perceive, my daily walk, the conversation of my neighbors,
may inspire me, and I may dream of no heaven but that which lies around me.
It is never too late to give up our prejudices. No way of thinking or doing, however ancient, can be
trusted without proof. What everybody echoes or in silences passes by as true today may turn out to be
falsehood tomorrow, mere smoke of opinion...What old people say you cannot do, you try and find that
you can. Old deeds for old people, and new deeds for new.
Knowledge does not come to us by details, but in flashes of light from heaven.
In a pleasant spring morning all men's sins are forgiven. Through our own recovered innocence we
discern the innocence of our neighbors.
I do not know how to distinguish between our waking life and a dream. Are we not always living the life
that we imagine we are?
I came into this world, not chiefly to make this a good place to live in, but to live in it, be it good or bad.
A man has not everything to do, but something: and because he cannot do everything, it is not
necessary he should do something wrong.
We are double-edged blades, and every time we whet our virtue the return stroke strops our vice.
As for conforming outwardly, and living your own life inwardly, I do not think much of that. When you
get God to pulling one way, and the devil the other, each having his feet well-braced--to say nothing of
the conscience sawing transversely--almost any timber will give way.
In any weather, at any hour of the day or night, I have been anxious to improve the nick of time, and
notch it on my stick too; to stand at the meeting of two eternities, the past and future, which is precisely
the present moment; to toe that line.
Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other's eyes for an instant? We
should live in all the ages of the world in an hour; ay, in all the worlds of the ages. History! Poetry!
Mythology!--I know of no reading of another's experience so startling and informing as this would be.
...[A] man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone.
I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself than be crowded on a velvet cushion.
PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF NORTH CAROLINA State Board of Education | Department of Public Instruction
AIG ~ IRP Academically and/or Intellectually Gifted Instructional Resources Project
Thoreau on Living Today
ELA/Grade 9
I suspect that the child plucks his first flower with an insight into its beauty and significance which the
subsequent botanist never retains.
In wildness is the preservation of the world.
The use of the rainbow, who has described it?
Nothing stands up more free from blame in the world than a pine tree.
When I hear a robin sing at sunset, I cannot help contrast the magnanimity of nature with the bustle and
impatience of man.
I must live above all in the present.
Any melodious sound apprises me of the infinite wealth of God.
There is a chasm between knowledge and ignorance which the arches of science can never span.
All wisdom is the reward of a discipline, conscious or unconscious.
What does education often do? It makes a straight-cut ditch of a free, meandering brook.
To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.
What is religion? That which is never spoken.
How prompt we are to satisfy the hunger and thirst of our bodies; how slow to satisfy the hunger and
thirst of our souls. We cannot do well without our sins; they are the highway of our virtue.
Say what you have to say, not what you ought. Any truth is better than make-believe.
Truth is always paradoxical.
You conquer fate by thought.
In proportion as he simplifies his life, the law of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will
not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, no weakness weakness.
If a man were to place himself in an attitude to bear manfully the greatest evil that can be inflicted on
him, he would find suddenly that there was no such evil to bear, his brave back would go a begging.
PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF NORTH CAROLINA State Board of Education | Department of Public Instruction
AIG ~ IRP Academically and/or Intellectually Gifted Instructional Resources Project
Thoreau on Living Today
ELA/Grade 9
A brave man always knows the way, no matter how intricate the roads.
Fear creates danger, and courage dispels it.
Take time by the forelock. Now or never. You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave,
and find eternity in every moment. Fools stand on their island opportunities and look toward another
land. There is no other land; there is no other life but this, or the like of this.
Do not stop to be scared yet; there are more terrible things to come, and ever to come. Men die of
fright and live of confidence.
We all all stand in the front ranks of battle every moment of our lives; where there is a brave man, there
is the thicket of the fight, there is the post of honor.
The universe expects every man to do his duty in his parallel of latitude.
Let us spend one day as deliberately as Nature and not be thrown off the track by every nutshell and
mosquito's wing that falls on the rail. Let us rise early and fast, or break fast, gently and without
perturbation let company come and company go, let the bells ring and children cry--determined to
make a day of it. Why should we knock under and go with the stream.
When we are unhurried and wise we perceive that only great and worthy things have any permanent
and absolute existence--that petty fears and petty pleasures are but the shadow of reality. This is always
exhilarating and sublime.
Drifting in a sultry day on the sluggish waters of the pond, I almost cease to live and begin to be.
Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.
I know that I am. I know that another who knows more than I, who takes an interest in me, whose
creature, and yet whose kindred in one sense, I am. I know that the enterprise is worthy. I know that
things work well. I have heard no bad news. In order to avoid delusions, I would fain let man go and
behold a universe in which man is but as a grain of sand.
How much of beauty--of color, as well as form--on which our eyes daily rest goes unperceived by us!
If you have built your castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now
put the foundations under them.
The question is not what you look at, but what you see.
PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF NORTH CAROLINA State Board of Education | Department of Public Instruction
AIG ~ IRP Academically and/or Intellectually Gifted Instructional Resources Project
Thoreau on Living Today
ELA/Grade 9
I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams,
and endeavors to lead the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in
common hours.
PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF NORTH CAROLINA State Board of Education | Department of Public Instruction
AIG ~ IRP Academically and/or Intellectually Gifted Instructional Resources Project
Thoreau on Living Today
ELA/Grade 9
SOME OF THOREAU’S PHILOSOPHIES
IN YOUR OWN WORDS…
Based on the attached quotes (read ALL of them and use a dictionary as needed!), how did
Thoreau feel about…
TIME?
NATURE?
CONFORMITY?
KNOWLEDGE?
PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF NORTH CAROLINA State Board of Education | Department of Public Instruction
AIG ~ IRP Academically and/or Intellectually Gifted Instructional Resources Project
Thoreau on Living Today
EDUCATION?
GOALS?
Please be ready to share your thoughts.
PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF NORTH CAROLINA State Board of Education | Department of Public Instruction
AIG ~ IRP Academically and/or Intellectually Gifted Instructional Resources Project
ELA/Grade 9
Thoreau on Living Today
ELA/Grade 9
Essay: Thoreau and YOU
Given what you’ve noted is important to you, what advice do you think Thoreau would give you
today if he could? What would he have to say about the choices you are making? Would he
approve or disapprove of them? WHY?
Your task is to write a five-paragraph essay in which you first summarize Thoreau’s philosophy
about living and then identify and explain three pieces of advice that he might give you today.
Make his advice personal to YOU, not to people in general. Finally, would you take his advice?
Why or why not? And what might that mean for you?
You MUST justify Thoreau’s advice with accurate evidence based on his writings. Consider using
some of his famous quotes in order to explain his advice.
Your essay will be evaluated based on the following criteria:
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Accuracy: Your essay demonstrates your grasp of Thoreau’s thinking and writings.
Detail: Your essay includes details from your life as well as Thoreau’s work.
Thoughtful: It’s clear that you’ve put some real thought into what advice Thoreau might
offer you, and your ideas are deep and unique. You’ve gone beyond the obvious!
Interesting writing: Your essay includes both a strong, inviting opening as well as a
memorable and thoughtful conclusion. In addition, your sentences are varied in terms of
length, and your word choice is thoughtful (strong verbs and interesting adjectives).
Correct mechanics: Things to consider include subject-verb agreement, consistent verb
tense, correct punctuation of titles as needed, no sentence fragments or run-ons,
correct spelling, and correct use of commas.
Have fun with this opportunity to examine your life and your choices!
PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF NORTH CAROLINA State Board of Education | Department of Public Instruction
AIG ~ IRP Academically and/or Intellectually Gifted Instructional Resources Project