ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived."

Detailed explanation-2: -Finally, the obscure mystical side of Thoreau-which makes him often appear more of a visionary than a philosopher-is evident in his famous phrase “to live deliberately.” On a literal level, he wishes to choose his path of life independently and thoughtfully, subject to his own deliberation and no one else’s.

Detailed explanation-3: -“Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.” “A man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone.” “Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.” “For my greatest skill has been to want but little.”

Detailed explanation-4: -Quote 1. The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. This sentence, which appears in the first chapter, “Economy, ” is perhaps the most famous quotation from Walden.

Detailed explanation-5: -For Thoreau at the start of Walden, living deliberately meant leading a life of solitude, self-reliance, and intimate connection to the natural world.