“If I were only allowed to own or to read, for the rest of my life, one book, this would be the one. I think of the spirit of Thoreau, as epitomized in Walden, whenever I feel my life drifting off course, or feel out of touch with the things that matter in life. All the editions that I own of this book are full of scribbled notations in the margins, mostly of the "so true" and "so important" variety. I love his line about how "only that day dawns to which we are truly awake." And here's another: "The greater part of what my neighbors call good I believe in my soul to be bad, and if I repent of any thing, it is very likely to be my good behavior. What demon posessed me that I behaved so well? You may say the wisest thing you can, old man,--you who have lived seventy years, not without honor of a kind,--I hear an irresistable voice which invites me away from all that. One generation abandons the enterprises of another like stranded vessels." To me, those lines are a call to reinvent yourself, to always be yearning for the next discovery, the next revelation. Instead of being afraid that someone may disapprove, or that you may not meet some arbitrary standard of success.”
peter b wrote this review Friday, February 29 2008.
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