Thoreau wrote in the “Economy” chapter of Walden, “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” He was convinced that most people just skimmed through life and went along with what those around them were doing and thinking, without doing much thinking on their own. People were too quick to go along with the crowd. They led unfulfilled lives of quiet desperation without even realizing it. (Many probably still do.)
He was the...
Thoreau wrote in the “Economy” chapter of Walden, “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” He was convinced that most people just skimmed through life and went along with what those around them were doing and thinking, without doing much thinking on their own. People were too quick to go along with the crowd. They led unfulfilled lives of quiet desperation without even realizing it. (Many probably still do.)
He was the kind of person who would stop and say, “Wait a minute. Why are we doing this?” In the “Conclusion” chapter, he wrote, “Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed and in such desperate enterprises? If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.” He championed the power of the individual, the non-conformist who did what he thought was best, regardless of what anyone else thought. And this was how he lived his own life.
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