Go not so far out of your way for a truer life

January 12.

I sometimes think that I may go forth and walk hard and earnestly, and live a more substantial life and get a glorious experience; be much abroad in heat and cold, day and night; live more, expend more atmospheres, be weary often, etc., etc. 

But then swiftly the thought comes to me, 

Go not so far out of your way for a truer life; keep strictly onward in that path alone which your genius points out. Do the things which lie nearest to you, but which are difficult to do. Live a purer, a more thoughtful and laborious life, more true to your friends and neighbors, more noble and magnanimous, and that will be better than a wild walk. 

To live in relations of truth and sincerity with men is to dwell in a frontier country. What a wild and unfrequented wilderness that would be! ...

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, January 12, 1852

Be much abroad in heat and cold, day and night; be weary often, etc., etc. See December 25, 1856 ("Take long walks in stormy weather or through deep snows in the fields and woods, if you would keep your spirits up. Deal with brute nature. Be cold and hungry and weary.")

Go not so far out of your way for a truer life. See January 11, 1852 (But if I travel in a simple, primitive, original manner, standing in a truer relation to men and nature,  . . . get some honest experience of life . . . then it becomes less important whither I go or how far."); August 6, 1851 ("It takes a man of genius to travel in his own country, in his native village"); May 6, 1854 ("It matters not where or how far you travel, — the farther commonly the worse, — but how much alive you are."); November 20, 1857 ("A man is worth most to himself and to others, whether as an observer, or poet, or neighbor, or friend, where he is most himself, most contented and at home.")

January 12,.  See A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, January 12

Do the things which lie 

nearest to you but which are 

difficult to do.

A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau

"A book, each page written in its own season,

out-of-doors, in its own locality.”

~edited, assembled and rewritten by zphx © 2009-2022