QuoteProject
In my afternoon walk I would fain forget all my morning occupations and my obligations to society.
Henry David Thoreau
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote emphasizes the importance of disconnecting from societal obligations to find personal peace.

In this quote, Thoreau expresses a desire to escape the pressures and responsibilities that come with daily life. He suggests that during his afternoon walk, he yearns to forget his morning duties and societal expectations, highlighting the need for personal reflection and serenity amidst the chaos of daily obligations. This idea is central to his philosophy of simplicity and self-awareness, revealing that sometimes we need to step away from societal demands to nurture our inner selves.

Themes

AfternoonPeaceNatureFreedomObligation

In practice

Example use cases

This quote can be shared during a mindfulness workshop to encourage participants to disconnect from societal pressures.

More from Henry David Thoreau

None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.
Henry David ThoreauRead
Through want of enterprise and faith men are where they are, buying and selling and spending their lives like servants.
Henry David ThoreauRead
An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.
Henry David ThoreauRead
Have no mean hours, but be grateful for every hour, and accept what it brings. The reality will make any sincere record respectable.
Henry David ThoreauRead
As every season seems best to us in its turn, so the coming in of spring is like the creation of Cosmos out of Chaos and the realization of the Golden Age.
Henry David ThoreauRead
That grand old poem called Winter
Henry David ThoreauRead

Similar quotes

I hope corporations will dedicate a percentage of their top innovators' time to issues that could help people left out of the global economy. This kind of contribution is even more powerful than giving cash or offering employees' time off to volunteer. It is a focused use of what your company does best. It is a great form of creative capitalism, because it takes the brainpower and makes life better for the richest, and dedicates some of it to improving the lives of everyone else.
Bill GatesRead
The fates have given mankind a patient soul.
HomerRead
Utilitarianism is a civilization of production and of use, a civilization of "things" and not of "persons," a civilization in which persons are used in the same way as things are used. In the context of a civilization of use, woman can become an object for man, children a hindrance to parents, the family an institution obstructing the freedom of its members.
Pope John Paul IiRead
Salvation means knowing the truth. We do not become anything; we are what we are. Salvation [comes] by faith and not by work. It is a question of knowledge! You must know what you are, and it is done. The dream vanishes. This you [and others] are dreaming here. When they die, they go to [the] heaven [of their dream]. They live in that dream, and [when it ends], they take a nice body [here], and they are good people.
Swami VivekanandaRead
Boredom is the dream bird that hatches the egg of experience. A rustling in the leaves drives him away.
Walter BenjaminRead
One of the many things I learned at the end of that Classics corridor down which I ventured at the age of 18, in search of something I could not then define, was this, written by the Greek author Plutarch: What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality. That is an astonishing statement and yet proven a thousand times every day of our lives. It expresses, in part, our inescapable connection with the outside world, the fact that we touch other people’s lives simply by existing.
J. K. RowlingRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.