Thoreau – Walden – 8-27-13
Thoreau Reader: The Economy
The Thoreau Reader
So now I would say something similar to you, my readers. Since you are my readers, and I have not been much of a traveller, I will not talk about people a thousand miles off, but come as near home as I can. As the time is short, I will leave out all the flattery, and retain all the criticism.
- D. Thoreau
As for my own business, even that kind of surveying which I could do with most satisfaction my employers do not want. They would prefer that I should do my work coarsely and not too well, ay, not well enough. When I observe that there are different ways of surveying, my employer commonly asks which will give him the most land, not which is most correct.
Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for love of it.
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“The greater part of what my neighbors call good I believe in my
soul to be bad, and if I repent of anything, it is very likely to be my
good behavior. What demon possessed me that I behaved so well?”
- D. Thoreau