The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation. From the desperate city you go into the despera… - Henry David Thoreau

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The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation. From the desperate city you go into the desperate country, and have to console yourself with the bravery of minks and muskrats. A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind. There is no play in them, for this comes after work. But it is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.

life resignation desperation
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About Henry David Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau (12 July 1817 – 6 May 1862) was an American essayist, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, and historian. A leading transcendentalist, Thoreau is best known for his book Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay Resistance to Civil Government (also known as Civil Disobedience), an argument for disobedience to an unjust state.

Biography information from Wikiquote

Also Known As

Birth Name: David Henry Thoreau
Alternative Names: Thoreau • Henry D. Thoreau • Henry Thoreau
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Shorter versions of this quote

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.
Walden · April 18, 2004 Verified in 3 sources · 2 more available Sign up to see the complete provenance
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Originators like Henry David Thoreau:
Ralph Waldo Emerson Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Michel de Montaigne Samuel Johnson Robert Louis Stevenson

Additional quotes by Henry David Thoreau

... letter-writing too often degenerates into a communicating of facts, and not of truths; of other men's deeds and not our thoughts. What are the convulsions of a planet, compared with the emotions of the soul? or the rising of a thousand suns, if that is not enlightened by a ray?
Familiar Letters of Henry David Thoreau · 1895 Verified in 2 sources · 1 more available Sign up to see the complete provenance
Writing contemplation
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We have reason to be grateful for celestial phenomena, for they chiefly answer to the ideal in man. The stars are distant and unobtrusive, but bright and enduring as our fairest and most memorable experiences.
A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers · June 13, 2004 Verified in 2 sources · 1 more available Sign up to see the complete provenance
contemplation human-nature
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