The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation

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

Example Sentences

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

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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.

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

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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.

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

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