We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn, which does not forsake us in our soundest sleep.
I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavour. It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look, which morally we can do. To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts. Every man is tasked to make his life, even in its details, worthy of the contemplation of his most elevated and critical hour. If we refused, or rather used up, such paltry information as we get, the oracles would distinctly inform us how this might be done.
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. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion. 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."
Henry Thoreau - Walden
Botogol is on vacation.
and not doing DIY until Monday.
1 comment:
This is a very nice piece/posting!!
My two cents for this Sunday are below:
“There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar: I love not man the less, but nature more,
From these our interviews, in which I steal
From all I may be, or have been before,
To mingle with the universe, and feel
What I can never express, yet can not all conceal.”
By Lord Byron
BTW If you have not already, I think you may enjoy watching the movie: “Into the Wild” also based on a true story.
Below are few selected quotes that I like very much by the original and controversial Henry David Thoreau. I sent them to a dear friend few months ago (of course there are tons more available all over)
- Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life. Aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something.
- He enjoys true leisure who has time to improve his soul’s estate.
- If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours.
- My friend is one who takes me for what I am.
- When we are unhurried and wise, we perceive that only great and worthy things have any permanent and absolute existence that petty fears and petty pleasures are but the shadow of the reality.
- There is no remedy for love but to love more.
- Rather than love, than faith, than fame, than fairness, give me truth!
Enjoy your green vacation!
PS Your readers are looking forward to getting a flavor of some of your best DIY Tips (sans mischievousness Dennis!):-)
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