Thoreau

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.
I did not wish to live
what was not life,
living is so dear;
nor did I wish
to practise resignation,
unless it was quite necessary.
I wanted to live deep
and suck out all the marrow of life,
to live so sturdily and Spartan- like
as to put to rout all that was not life,
to cut a broad swath and shave close,
to drive life into a corner,
and reduce it to its lowest terms,
and, if it proved to be mean,
why then to get the whole and
genuine meanness of it,
and publish its meanness
to the world;
or if it were sublime,
to know it by experience,
and be able to give
a true account of it
in my next excursion.