You speak of poverty and dependence. Who are poor and dependent? Who are rich and independent? When was it that men agreed to respect the appearance and not the reality?
Henry David ThoreauBooks that are books are all that you want, and there are but a half dozen in any thousand.
Henry David ThoreauA man who has to go to the village to get the news hasn't heard from himself in a long time.
Henry David ThoreauHowever mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names. It is not so bad as you are.
Henry David ThoreauIf you take this life to be simply what old religious folks pretend (I mean the effete, gone to seed in a drought, mere human galls stung by the devil once), then all your joy and serenity is reduced to grinning and bearing it. The fact is, you have got to take the world on your shoulders like Atlas, and "put along" with it. You will do this for an idea's sake, and your success will be in proportion to your devotion to ideas. It may make your back ache occasionally, but you will have the satisfaction of hanging it or twirling it to suit yourself.
Henry David Thoreau