_Henry David Thoreau QTD

"I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours."

On this day in 1817, American literary figure Thoreau was born. As life in the U.S. became more modernized, Thoreau sought a simpler life. He famously lived two years at a cabin he built, later reflecting on his experiences in his book Walden: Or, Life in the Woods (1854): "I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach …" Thoreau served as an important voice in the transcendentalism movement (focused on individualism & embracing nature).