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A Life of One's Own

Thoreau, Emerson, Montaigne and Schopenhauer: how to leave quiet desperation behind, and what it means to possess yourself without insulting the life you were given.

  1. Day 1 of 7

    The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.

    Henry David Thoreau, Walden, or Life in the Woods

  2. Day 2 of 7

    Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.

    Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays — First Series

  3. Day 3 of 7

    Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.

    Arthur Schopenhauer, The Essays; Studies in Pessimism

  4. Day 4 of 7

    Man is certainly stark mad; he cannot make a worm, and yet he will be making gods by dozens.

    Michel de Montaigne, Essays — Complete

  5. Day 5 of 7

    The greatest thing in the world is for a man to know that he is his own.

    Michel de Montaigne, Essays — Complete

  6. Day 6 of 7

    However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names.

    Henry David Thoreau, Walden, or Life in the Woods

  7. Day 7 of 7

    Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.

    Henry David Thoreau, Walden, or Life in the Woods

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