Quotes in Context — Thoreau: “That if one advances confidently…”
Why create QnC [Quotes in Context]?
Imagine choosing to live in an isolated wood, close to a pond, far from civilization for 2 years, 2 months and 2 days — as a life experiment. In today’s vernacular, we would call this a ‘life hack’. This is exactly what Thoreau did.
Like many of you, one of my favourite quotes over the years (decades actually) has been:
“…that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. “
But how many of you know where this actually comes from? It is the last chapter of the classic, Walden. (public domain audiobook here)
Let’s take a quick look at this popular quote in context. Henry David Thoreau’s Walden is about the two years and two months he lived by Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts. The number of quotes from this book on deliberate and ethical living are immense. But check out the line just prior to the famous quote.
I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently … Thoreau’s ‘life hack’ was genuine and full on. He literally unplugged from city life on July 4, 1845. Let’s try and break this down a bit like a commentary and see if we can glean a some of what he learned..
if one advances [action] confidently in the direction of his dream [decision to act, not just wish]
endeavours [takes specific actions] to live the life he has imagined [detailed ideal — well thought through, though maybe seemingly not logical to others]
meet with success unexplained [almost miraculous] in common hours [results beyond normal reckoning > weeks into days / Years into months etc.
The entire book is basically his reminiscences and reflections of his time at Walden. But at the conclusion of the book he was preparing to enter back into civilization and the next chapters of his life. So our famous quote is his first summarizing thought about his experimental time at Walden. What really blows me away is how expansive his thinking was, as evidenced in the passages that immediately followed the main quote.
He will put some things behind [past way of thinking and acting] , will pass an invisible boundary; [meaning >>>] new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; [fertile ground to create the life imagined] or the old laws be expanded, and interpreted in his favour in a more liberal sense, and he will live with the license of a higher order of beings.
He actually begins to explain how one will “meet with a success unexpected in common hours.” Some may call this the law of attraction, others may call it the universal language or being one with the universe. Some may even want to discuss synchronicity. But however you want to slice it, it was (and still is?) remarkable insight.
His next line sounds right out of a recent New Age best seller as it focuses one’s inner POV in all circumstances.
In proportion [based on actions] as he simplifies his life [stop over-thinking? Stop taking things personally?] , the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness. [Simple perspective — life is.]
It is the last phrase in this section that really provides hope to all of us working through the daily struggle of ‘endeavouring to live the life imagined’.
If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.
Many of us have big dreams (wishes?) that we never act on. But the more stories you hear of writers or artists or inventors who flourished late in life are a testament that it is never too late to take action and lay the foundation.
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