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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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