Tag Archives: Henry David Thoreau

The Splendiferously Bearded Writers Social Club: Henry David Thoreau

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  • Name: Henry David Thoreau
  • D/O/B: 07/12/1817
  • Member Since: 1856
  • Status: Charter Member
  • Important Role: Chief lecturer and rabble-rouser at all meetings
  • Hobbies: Pondering; thinking; philosophizing; protesting; communing with nature; intensely staring at all and sundry
Henry David Thoreau, 1856

Henry David Thoreau, 1856

 

Ten Quotes and a Photograph in Honor of Henry David Thoreau’s Birthday

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Happy 196th Birthday, Mr. Thoreau!

  • “It is what a man thinks of himself that really determines his fate.”
  • “Simplify, simplify.”
  • “The world is wider than our views of it.”
  • “How vain it is to sit down and write when you have not stood up to live.”
  • “Never look back unless you are planning to go that way.”
Henry David Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau

  • “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 he hears, however measured or far away.”
  • “Things do not change; we change.”
  • “One is not born into the world to do everything but to do something.”
  • “A man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone.”
  • “It’s not worth our while to let our imperfections disturb us always.”

Daily Diversion #22: How Long Can I Resist?

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"An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day."-Henry David Thoreau

“An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.”-Henry David Thoreau

I’m not an early riser, but I like the idea of taking a morning constitutional. Not a plain old walk, mind you: a constitutional. Yes, yes…I know it means the same thing. The latter, however, sounds vigorous and lovely and a bit old-fashioned. As if it takes work, thought, planning. A clear head. For the last few weeks, I’ve been threatening to get up early (for me) and drag my husband to the cemetery down the street. A four-minute drive for an hour’s hike. After sunrise, but before the work day has dawned. It is such a tempting idea, in my head. On paper. The reality will likely find me achy and whiny and yawning for the first half an hour. Yet, yet… the destination is the above scene: vibrant, bright, wild. Serene. All in the shadow of the city. How long can I resist?

Shopping for the Bookworm: New England Transcendentalists Edition

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For some reason, I have been thinking a lot about the New England Transcendentalists. Maybe it is the image of Margaret Fuller that stares down at me from one of my inspiration boards. Whatever the cause, it is a fine subject to be preoccupied with on a lovely Spring day. In honor of today’s one-track thought process, I’ve collected an inspiring and eclectic group of NET-inspired goodies. Enjoy!

This shop is so full of literary-themed profiles that every visit requires a gargantuan exercise in restraint. I want them all, I went them all now! Continue reading →

A Year in Books/Day 127: Heaven is Under Our Feet

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  • Title: Heaven is Under Our Feet A Book For Walden Woods
  • Edited By: Don Henley and Dave Marsh
  • Year Published: 1991 (Longmeadow Press)
  • Year Purchased: 1991
  • Source: Unknown
  • About: Heaven is Under Our Feet, a phrase taken from Thoreau, is a collection of environmentally conscious essays by leading writers, activists and assorted artists (including Jimmy Carter, James Earl Jones, James A. Michener, Sting, Kurt Vonnegut). Spearheaded by musician Don Henley, this book was part of The Walden Woods Project, a collective effort to save the non-protected parts of Thoreau’s stomping ground from developers. It remains an important contribution to, and meditation on, the environmental movement and why nature and our country’s wild places matter.
  • Motivation: As a school girl, I was obsessed with the very idea of this book. I was already a serious environmentalist (in that intense way particular only to teenagers). I loved Thoreau’s writing and had a humongous crush on Don Henley (don’t judge me, please!). So, in short: Environment + Thoreau + that guy from the Eagles=my hot pursuit of this volume.
  • Times Read: 2
  • Random Excerpt/Page 29: “When I first visited Walden as an adolescent more than thirty-five years ago-it was in 1955, or perhaps 1956-I was dismayed by what I saw. The place seemed forlorn, distinctly down at the heels, and not half as wild as I’d hoped it would be.”
  • Happiness Scale: 9