“ To enjoy a thing exclusively is commonly to exclude yourself from the true enjoyment of it. ”
Henry David Thoreau, Walking (1851). copy citation
| Author | Henry David Thoreau |
|---|---|
| Source | Walking |
| Topic | enjoyment |
| Date | 1851 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | |
| Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1022/1022-h/1022-h.htm |
Context
“But possibly the day will come when it will be partitioned off into so-called pleasure grounds, in which a few will take a narrow and exclusive pleasure only,—when fences shall be multiplied, and man traps and other engines invented to confine men to the public road, and walking over the surface of God’s earth shall be construed to mean trespassing on some gentleman’s grounds. To enjoy a thing exclusively is commonly to exclude yourself from the true enjoyment of it. Let us improve our opportunities, then, before the evil days come.
What is it that makes it so hard sometimes to determine whither we will walk? I believe that there is a subtle magnetism in Nature, which, if we unconsciously yield to it, will direct us aright.”
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