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Out of any author I’ve read, Henry David Thoreau definitely has the most inspirational quotes to live by. This one comes from his book Walden, and was the main quote in my life that convinced me that I ought to spend a great deal of time in solitude, reflecting on life and how to best live it.
“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life.”
Thoreau spent two full years in the woods of Concord, Massachusetts, in a home he built himself. He eagerly sought solitude, and through it, something more. And through his experience, I learned not to be afraid of solitude, but rather to seek it and look forward to it. As a teenager growing up in a big city, solitude always seemed like a terrifying concept — alone with nothing to do. But now that I’ve spent a significant amount of time in solitude, I can say that nothing was more beneficial to my growth as a man and a human being. I’m going to finish with an excerpt from a Robert Frost poem about him wishing to disappear into a large forest and be lost to his thoughts and the trees.
“I should not be withheld but that some day
into their vastness I should steal away
Fearless of ever finding open land,
or highway where the slow wheel pours the sand.
I do not see why I should e’er turn back,
Or those should not set forth upon my track
To overtake me, who should miss me here
And long to know if still I held them dear.
They would not find me changed from him they knew–
Only more sure of all I thought was true.”
That poem gives me chills every time I read it. His final two lines are the perfect description of the benefit of solitude — gaining a deep sense of confidence about the life you lead, knowing how to live deliberately, what’s worth fighting for and what’s not. I hope you enjoyed these two quotes to live by on the benefit of solitude.
