Show those qualities then which lie wholly within thy power: sincerity, a steady gravity of soul, endurance amid toil, a firm turning away from mere pleasures that enslave, contentment with thy simple portion and with few possessions, benevolence toward thy fellows, frankness without guile, freedom from all love of superfluity, liberty from trifling pursuits, and a magnanimous spirit that rises above petty wrongs.
Do you not see how many such qualities thou art able, here and now, to put forth—qualities for which no plea of natural weakness or unfit frame can serve as excuse—and yet thou dost voluntarily linger below the true mark, content to fritter away the days in distraction and complaint?
Go to the woods, or remain where thou art, but live deliberately. Front only the essential facts of life; simplify, simplify. Cast off the needless burdens that encumber the soul—the superfluities, the trifles, the endless clamor for more. In proportion as a man pares life down to its lowest terms, the laws of the universe grow plain, and the path to virtue lies open before him.These qualities are not distant prizes to be begged from fortune; they are the marrow of existence, ready to be sucked out if thou wilt but drive life into a corner and reduce it to its Spartan simplicity. Sincerity is but truth spoken plain; gravity is but attention to what endures; endurance is but bearing what comes without murmur; aversion to pleasure is but refusal to be its slave; contentment is but gratitude for the air thou breathest, the water thou drinkest, the fruit of the earth; benevolence is but seeing thy neighbor as thyself; frankness is but words without varnish; freedom from superfluity is but owning no more than suffices; magnanimity is but the soul's refusal to be small.Why then dost thou still remain below the mark? The woods invite thee, the pond reflects thee, nature herself does her best each moment to make thee whole—resist her not. Launch thyself on every wave of the present, live deep, and when the hour comes to depart, go willingly, having lived, not merely existed.The wildness within preserves the world; embrace it, and let these qualities bloom in quiet strength. What holds thee back is no external chain, but thine own voluntary surrender. Awake, then, and begin.
Go to the woods, or remain where thou art, but live deliberately. Front only the essential facts of life; simplify, simplify. Cast off the needless burdens that encumber the soul—the superfluities, the trifles, the endless clamor for more. In proportion as a man pares life down to its lowest terms, the laws of the universe grow plain, and the path to virtue lies open before him.These qualities are not distant prizes to be begged from fortune; they are the marrow of existence, ready to be sucked out if thou wilt but drive life into a corner and reduce it to its Spartan simplicity. Sincerity is but truth spoken plain; gravity is but attention to what endures; endurance is but bearing what comes without murmur; aversion to pleasure is but refusal to be its slave; contentment is but gratitude for the air thou breathest, the water thou drinkest, the fruit of the earth; benevolence is but seeing thy neighbor as thyself; frankness is but words without varnish; freedom from superfluity is but owning no more than suffices; magnanimity is but the soul's refusal to be small.Why then dost thou still remain below the mark? The woods invite thee, the pond reflects thee, nature herself does her best each moment to make thee whole—resist her not. Launch thyself on every wave of the present, live deep, and when the hour comes to depart, go willingly, having lived, not merely existed.The wildness within preserves the world; embrace it, and let these qualities bloom in quiet strength. What holds thee back is no external chain, but thine own voluntary surrender. Awake, then, and begin.