“This world is a place of business. What an infinite bustle! I am awaked almost every night by the panting of the locomotive. It interrupts my dreams. There is no sabbath. It would be glorious to see mankind at leisure for once. It is nothing but work, work, work. I cannot easily buy a blank-book to write thoughts in; they are commonly ruled for dollars and cents. An Irishman, seeing me making a minute in the fields, took it for granted that I was calculating my wages. If a man was tossed out of a window when an infant, and so made a cripple for life, or scared out of his wits by the Indians, it is regretted chiefly because he was thus incapacitated for—business! I think that there is nothing, not even crime, more opposed to poetry, to philosophy, ay, to life itself, than this incessant business.”
Quote by Henry David Thoreau
Work
Life Without Principle
Browse quotes and source details for this work. more
Author
You May Also Like
Source: The revolution of everyday life
Source: Folks, This Ain't Normal: A Farmer's Advice for Happier Hens, Healthier People, and a Better World
Source: A Memory Called Empire
Source: A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
Source: The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays
“The recipe for great work is: very exacting taste, plus the ability to gratify it.”
Source: Hackers & Painters: Big Ideas from the Computer Age