The morning, which is the most memorable season of the day, is the awakening hour.
Henry David Thoreau Walden, Chapter 2, Where I Lived, and What I Lived For (1854)
Source checked by an editor
When and why it was written
- When
- From Walden, published in 1854.
- Why
- Thoreau is explaining why he rose early and bathed in the pond each morning.
What it means
For Thoreau, morning is a state of mind as much as an hour: the time when something in us is awake that sleeps the rest of the day.
It is a good argument for writing early, before the day fills up.
Our reading of the passage cited above, not a quotation from a commentary.
Read the source
Walden, 1854
Your turn
What does this bring up for you?
Saved to this device only. Nothing is sent to a server.
Continue transfers only this reflection. Review your account before saving. Your original browser copy stays here.
Read next
Any man more right than his neighbors constitutes a majority of one already.
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience, On the Duty of Civil Disobedience (1849)
Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in.
Walden, Chapter 2, Where I Lived, and What I Lived For (1854)
We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn, which does not forsake us in our soundest sleep.
Walden, Chapter 2, Where I Lived, and What I Lived For (1854)