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The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation

Cultural  
  1. A statement from Walden, by Henry David Thoreau.


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

In society, he wrote, “the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.”

From Reuters

One of his final posts, before he quit the taxi business, quoted Henry Thoreau - “the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation” - and detailed the story of a rich guy who’d ordered a taxi, then canceled it after Fasano had driven to the man’s house.

From Washington Times

“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.”

From Golf Digest

As I grew older, though, I began to understand that Thoreau’s claim that “the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation” was not social criticism but personal confession.

From Washington Post

This comprehensive arrogance is captured in one of Thoreau’s most famous lines: “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.”

From The New Yorker