Simplify, simplify.
Genuine
Yes. In Walden (1854), Where I Lived, and What I Lived For.
Found word for word by program in the full text.
- Work
- Walden (Walden; or, Life in the Woods), 1854
- Where
- Where I Lived, and What I Lived For
- Found at
- Paragraph 159 of the text
Researched by AI; checked by program against the full text on 31 October 2026. Editorial review: pending. How we check
On the page
[…] For most men, it appears to me, are in a strange uncertainty about it, whether it is of the devil or of God, and have somewhat hastily concluded that it is the chief end of man here to “glorify God and enjoy him forever.”
[…] In the midst of this chopping sea of civilized life, such are the clouds and storms and quicksands and thousand-and-one items to be allowed for, that a man has to live, if he would not founder and go to the bottom and not make his port at all, by dead reckoning, and he must be a great calculator indeed who succeeds. Simplify, simplify. Instead of three meals a day, if it be necessary eat but one; instead of a hundred dishes, five; and reduce other things in proportion. […]
Why should we live with such hurry and waste of life? We are determined to be starved before we are hungry. Men say that a stitch in time saves nine, and so they take a thousand stitches to-day to save nine to-morrow. […]
For my part, I could easily do without the post-office. I think that there are very few important communications made through it. […]
The scene
After explaining why he went to the woods, Thoreau attacks the unnecessary details that consume ordinary life. He follows this command with examples of reducing meals and dishes, then extends the criticism from households to the nation’s luxury, expenditure and supposed improvements.
What it means
Reduce unnecessary wants and commitments so that life has a clear purpose instead of being spent managing its complications.
Often misread
It is more than advice about organizing possessions or working more efficiently: he questions whether the activities and national improvements being organized are worth pursuing at all.
Topics
Related quotes
- While it is put off, life runs past. Seneca the Younger
- If it is not right, do not do it: if it is not true, do not say it. Marcus Aurelius
- Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. Martin Luther King Jr.
- The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one. Elbert Hubbard
- The only way to have a friend is to be one. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Cite it
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