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The
Thoreau Institute at Walden Woods Library
Thoreau's
Life & Writings
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Henry D. Thoreau Mis-Quotations Pages
“Most men lead
lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still
in them.”
The first half
of this quotation is a misquotation from Thoreau's Walden:
“The mass of
men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation
is confirmed desperation. From the desperate city you go into
the desperate country, and have to console yourself with the
bravery of minks and muskrats. A stereotyped but unconscious
despair is concealed even under what are called the games and
amusements of mankind. There is no play in them, for this comes
after work. But it is a characteristic of wisdom not to do
desperate things.”
Second half of
this quotation is misattributed to Thoreau and may be a misquotation
or misremembering of Oliver Wendell Holmes' (1809-1894) "The
Voiceless":
Alas for
those that never sing,
But die with all their music in them.
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