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Henry David Thoreau
However 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.It looks poorest when you are richest.The
fault-finder will find faults in paradise.Love your life,poor as it is.You may
perhaps have some pleasant,thrilling,glorious hourss,even in a poor-house.The
setting sun is reflected from the windows of the alms-house as brightly as from
the rich man's abode;the snow melts before its door as early in the spring.I do
not see but a quiet mind may live as contentedly there,and have as cheering
thoughts,as in a palace.The town's poor seem to me often to live the most
independent lives of any.May be they are simply great enough to receive
without misgiving.Most think that they are above being supported by the
town;but it often happens that they are not above supporting themselves by
dishonest means.which should be more disreputable.Cultivate poverty like a
garden herb,like sage.Do not trouble yourself much to get new things,whether
clothes or friends,Turn the old,return to them.Things do not change;we
change.Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts. |
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