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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
“You
cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge
yourself one. Go out into life, you will find your chance there, and
only there.”
First
misattributed to Thoreau by readers of Anna Cabot Lowell's
Seed-Grain for Thought and Discussion: A Compilation (Boston:
Ticknor and Fields, 1856) in which the preceding
quotation was by Thoreau. This
quotation is
by the
English historian,
James Anthony Froude
(1818-1894)
from
his book, The Nemesis of Faith, and as given in
Lowell's anthology
reads:
If you think you can
temper yourself into manliness by sitting here over your books,
it is the very silliest fancy that ever tempted a young man to
his ruin. You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must
hammer and forge yourself one.
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