Edward Carpenter Quotes

The other thing that happened in 1883 was my reading of Thoreau's Walden.

I grew up in Belle Harbor, which is in New York City, but it has the most powerful sense of nature and seasons. It wasn't even the beach and the water. I just dreamt about everything that had to do with nature. I read about Thoreau.

I'm no Thoreau.

Thus was my first year's life in the woods completed; and the second year was similar to it. I finally left Walden September 6th,1847.

GOING TO WALDEN It isn't very far as highways lie. I might be back by nightfall, having seen The rough pines, and the stones, and the clear water. Friends argue that I might be wiser for it. They do not hear that far-off Yankee whisper: How dull we grow from hurrying here and there! Many have gone, and think me half a fool To miss a day away in the cool country. Maybe. But in a book I read and cherish, Going to Walden is not so easy a thing As a green visit. It is the slow and difficult Trick of living, and finding it where you are.

I did my solo thing for a while and got that out of my system.

Most of us have heard the saying, 'Cleanliness is next to godliness.' That's a sentiment I value, but another virtue has inspired me to revise that saying. As far as I'm concerned, what's next to godliness is resourcefulness.

I do keep my eyes and ears open but I don't spend a lot of time looking at what other people are doing to see how I can fit in.

If I produce myself, I'm gonna exploit no one - just myself.

I wash my own dishes; I do my own laundry. I'm not a glamorous person at all, not at all.

The creator must be a world for himself and must find everything in himself and in Nature, to whom his whole life is devoted.

Not to borrow the strength of another, nor to rely on one's own strength; to cut off past and future thoughts, and not to live within the everyday mind... then the Great Way is right before your eyes.

Wisdom's daughter walks alone. That didn't just mean without other people, Annabeth realized. It meant without any special powers.

It is desirable that a man be clad so simply that he can lay his hands on himself in the dark, and that he live in all respects so compactly and preparedly, that, if an enemy take the town, he can, like the old philosopher, walk out the gate empty-handed without anxiety.

When you don't have those types of things, fashion and all that stuff, it helps you find yourself because you don't have those things to rely on.

We need to develop a sense of sufficiency to be happy.

There is an intense but simple thrill in setting off in the morning on a mountain trail, knowing that everything you need is on your back. It is a confidence in having left the inessentials behind and of entering a world of natural beauty that has not been violated, where money has no value, and possessions are a dead weight. The person with the fewest possessions is the freest. Thoreau was right.

If I follow the inclination of my nature, it is this: beggar-woman and single, far rather than queen and married.

Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts. God will see that you do not want society.

you can survive only if nothing is necessary to you

The khadi spirit means also an infinite patience.

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.

It is better just to get on with the business of living and minding your own business and maybe, if God likes the way you do things, he may just let you flower for a day or a night. But don't go pestering and begging and telling him all your stupid little sins, that way you will spoil his day.

It's when you're not looking for anything that something winds up coming along. It's about learning how to be just with yourself and that you don't need to be in a relationship. You don't need anyone to fulfill you.

How will you know a good farmer when you meet him? He will not ask you for any favors.