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.
Henry David Thoreau Walden, Chapter 2, Where I Lived, and What I Lived For (1854)
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When and why it was written
- When
- From Walden, published in 1854.
- Why
- Thoreau is arguing that most people are only half awake to their own lives.
What it means
Thoreau means a waking of attention, not of the body. Alarm clocks will not do it; expectation will.
Each morning is a small chance to wake up in his sense, and a page is a way to mark it.
Our reading of the passage cited above, not a quotation from a commentary.
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Walden, 1854
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