I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential fac
ts of life , and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to di
e , 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 practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to
live deepand suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to
put to rout all that was not life , to cut a broad swath and shave close , to drive life i
ntoa corner , and reduce it to its lowest terms, and , if it proved to be mean, why then t
o getthe whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it
weresublime. to know it by experience. and be able to give a true account of it in my nex
t excursion. For most men, it appears to me, are in a strange uncertainty about it, whethe
r it is of the devil or of God, and have somewhat hastily concluded that it is the chief e
nd ofman here to "glorify God and enjoy him forever".
Henry David Thoreau:Walden, or Life in the Woods