Quotes · Quote card
Quotation from Walden by Henry David Thoreau
“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.”
Walden, Where I Lived, and What I Lived For (Project Gutenberg text)
The book's statement of purpose, explaining why Thoreau moved to the pond.
Citation: "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." — Henry David Thoreau, Walden, Where I Lived, and What I Lived For (Project Gutenberg text). (id walden-q2)
Portrait: Walden Thoreau, Ticknor and Fields (publisher), Public domain.
