“How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book?”
Henry David Thoreau asked that question in Walden. Reading that book was a new era in the life of the 16-year-old version of me. Maybe people treat teenagers differently now. But then, when people asked me what I wanted to do with my life, they expected to talk about a career, a profession, some line of work tied to a salary.
Thoreau suggested this:
To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor even to found a school, but to love wisdom as to live according to its dictates, a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity, and trust. It is to solve some of the problems of life, not only theoretically, but practically.
• Sources and notes: Henry David Thoreau, Walden: Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1971. The question is on p 107, and the quotation is on pp. 14-15. Thoreau was born on this day in 1817 in Concord, Mass.
No comments:
Post a Comment