mandag den 13. juli 2015

Henry David Thoreau



I dag er det Henry David Thoreau's fødselsdag... hurra, hurra, hurra.

Er man til det enkle liv i pagt med naturen, så er man stødt på ham her på et tidspunkt i sit liv. Manden levede 1817 til 1862 og er kendt som forfatteren af en række banebrydende (i sin samtid) værker. Mest kendt er nok han bog Walden og hans essay om Vandring. Han var glødende pacifist og hadede statslig indblanding i det personlige liv. Han mente at livets mysterier kunne afdækkes i naturens kredsløb. Han drog derfor ud i skoven, byggede sin egen hytte ved en sø (Walden Pond) og boede der i to år, 2 måneder og 2 dage.

For at fejre hans fødselsdag og vise at hans ord, for sin vis stadig er gælden idag, kommer her en række Thoreau citater, som er lånt på nettet.

Vær realistisk:

“If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.”

Vær dig selv:

“...be yourself – not your idea of what you think somebody else's idea of yourself should be.”

Drøm stort:

“I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”

Lyt til musikken:

"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."

Slap af:

"A broad margin of leisure is as beautiful in a man's life as in a book. Haste makes waste, no less in life than in housekeeping. Keep the time, observe the hours of the universe, not of the cars."

Hav en passende dosis moral:

“Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life so. Aim above morality. Be not simply good, be good for something.”

Træn din hjerne og din krop:

“As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.”

Lev nu:

“What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lives within us.”

Lev i fælleskabet:

"Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other's eyes for an instant?"

Vær åbensindet:

"It is never too late to give up your prejudices."

Less is more:

"A man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone."

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