ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS RESOURCES

EXCERPT FROM WALDEN BY HENRY DAVID THOREAU

1 (A) I went to the wood because I wished to live deliberately, to front only

2 the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach,

3 and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. (B) I did not wish

4 to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice

5 resignation, unless it was quite necessary. (C) I wanted to live deep and

6 suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartanlike as to put

7 to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life

8 into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean,

9 why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its

10 meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience and

11 be able to give a true account of my next excursion

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