Quotes To Live By -- Thoreau's Quiet Desperation

In his book "Walden" Thoreau noted that "the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation." When I first read this quote, it immediately struck me powerfully and quickly became one of the quotes I live by. But in a way, it's not really a quote to live by, but almost like a quote not to live a certain way. Whenever I can feel myself settling for good enough in life, a quiet desperation comes to haunt me and tell me that I'm wasting the one precious thing I'm always running out of, time. Now that I know what life feels like when lived in quiet desperation, something in my heart won't let me get away with it. This quote to live by from Thoreau also reminds me of another quote from C.S. Lewis.

"Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased."

The idea of desire is something that man has been talking about for many thousands of years. Whether it be the Epicureans and Stoics in ancient Greece, or the Taoists and Buddhists of ancient China, a large assortment of questions have been asked throughout time about this notion of desire. What is good in life to desire, how strongly should I desire it and fight for it? As I think about this life of mine, I strangely find that I cannot be fully satisfied unless I know that I have fought for something truly extraordinary. If I have not does this, if I've instead let myself settle for the things that are right in front of my eyes, I'll always feel the nagging tug of quiet desperation come into the back of my heart and mind.

I hate it that so often I find myself desiring things that in the end will show themselves hollow. I often feel like the child Lewis describes, settling for mud pies because I just can't fully understand the better things that are out there to find. My current hope for my life is that I can simply life a life that's full, whether it be full of joys or full of difficulties. Here is a short excerpt from another of my writings that really illustrates the feeling I'm trying to convey.

"How wonderful it is to simply be full, to travel about a day or an hour in the world, feeling the fullness of things. So often, doesn't life prove less than this? How often is fullness replaced by a dull numbness, half-hearted creatures half-heartedly taking in a rich world? Though I walk through trials and pain and the mundane, I will feel them all in their fullness. Whatever it is that life might bring, may it be rich and fill up the heart. Even in sorrow, be this wish still true -' even in grief, let fullness be glad."