Quote

1862·Concord, Massachusetts, USA

I am grateful for what I am & have. My thanksgiving is perpetual. It is surprising how contented one can be with nothing definite — only a sense of existence. Well, anything for variety. I am ready to try this for the next 1000 years, & exhaust it. How sweet to think of! My extremities well charred, and my intellectual part too, so that there is no danger of worm or rot for a long while. My breath is sweet to me. O how I laugh when I think of my vague indefinite riches. No run on my bank can drain it — for my wealth is not possession but enjoyment.

Read the source→Journal, November 22, 1860

Similar Thoughts

Confucius·-500 AD

With coarse rice to eat, with water to drink, and my bended arm for a pillow — I have still joy in the midst of these things. Riches and honors acquired by unrighteousness are to me as a floating cloud.

Socrates·415 BC

He is richest who is content with the least, for contentment is the wealth of nature.

Epictetus·106 AD

Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.

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More from Henry David Thoreau

1854

I am no more lonely than the loon in the pond that laughs so loud, or than Walden Pond itself. I am no more lonely than a single mullein or dandelion in a pasture, or a bean leaf, or a housefly, or a bumblebee. I am no more lonely than the Mill Brook, or a weathercock, or the north star, or the south wind, or an April shower, or a January thaw, or the first spider in a new house.

1862

In my walks I would fain return to my senses. What business have I in the woods, if I am thinking of something out of the woods?

1851

Methinks that the moment my legs begin to move, my thoughts begin to flow.

Locus

Concord, Massachusetts, USA

Tempus