I love a broad margin to my life.
Henry David Thoreau Walden, Chapter 4, Sounds (1854)
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When and why it was written
- When
- From the chapter called Sounds in Walden, published in 1854.
- Why
- Thoreau is describing whole mornings spent sitting in his doorway, doing nothing but noticing.
What it means
A margin is the white space around the text. Thoreau wanted room around his days, time not given to work.
A journal is a margin of its own: a place for the notes the busy page has no room for.
Our reading of the passage cited above, not a quotation from a commentary.
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Walden, 1854
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