Quotation Explanation (Henry David Thoreau)?

Question

"Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them." - Henry David Thoreau

can anybody please explain what the meaning of this quote is? It has always been really vague to me, so any help would be grateful!

Answer 1

I think it means that most people in trying to do the right thing do not really follow their dreams. They get caught up in the mundane and the everyday problems of living, and die without realizing their inner dreams and aspirations.

Answer 2

I think that the "quiet desperation" part of this quote is important. It's really getting at the urgent sense we have inside of us to become something, to do something, to fulfill our potential. We often don't talk about how we feel like we've failed, because that shows that we're weak and is another type of failure, so this struggle is often a quiet one. The song inside of us seems to be the potential for beauty and happiness that we have. Men go to the grave with this potential still inside them, because they haven't figured out a way to express it fully.

Answer 3

All of us, all men (all people), have songs (music) in us: many of us feel diffident, shy, inadequate, and do not sing enough in our life time! We do not come out, open out, and perform in our various fields of work or talents, with confidence and optimism and positive expectations: the result is that, most of us go through frustrations and despair, for want of our own efforts, in life, as a result of unutilised potentials and abilities! Finally, the inevitable end, death arrives to take us back, with the song (music) still unsung and deep within! In short, the Quote says, most of us do not try hard, do not try enough to achieve levels that we are capable of, and go through life accepting some amount of frustration!

Answer 4

This is a misquote of Henry David Thoreau, from his book Walden (subtitled, "or Life in the Woods"), in the first chapter: Economy (9th paragraph). The correct one, in context, helps to understand the meaning : "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation. From the desperate city you go into the desperate country, and have to console yourself with the bravery of minks and muskrats. A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind. There is no play in them, for this comes after work. But it is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.” As to meaning, Thoreau went to the woods to be able to live close to the earth and rid himself of those things which distract a person from what is truly important to living an authenic life. He saw that men, for the most part, pursued life frantically without having thought deeply about what they do, why they do it, and what life is all about. They didn't even seem to have an idea of the moral duty of one human toward another. They'd lost the "fun" of living, that is, the wonder, the delight. One often sees this while walking down a crowded street: people walking alone don't SEE each other; even those in a group seem to be using interaction as a distraction from asking life's big questions. They are afraid of things inside themselves, of their aloneness, of what they are "underneath" if they were stripped of all "extraneous things" and able to see clearer (as Thoreau says) "what is of absolute value." So they rush about being busy, in a society where "work" as an end in itself is more imporant than "BEing" and men are crushed beneath the burdens of their responsibilities or even of being poor. That he might "see with clearer eyes," Thoreau lived alone for two years and two months in the woods in a house he built with is own hands. Read Walden: you many then learn what he learned...without spending two-plus years alone. A person who has been bedridden and isolated for 20 years from age 39 learns many of the same things, once acceptance is reached (not "resignation" but a new openness to learn "what is of absolute value"). One comes face-to-face with one's most basic self. THIS is worth something, because one finds one's TRUE self, apart from any accomplishments as judged by the world's terms and as one as part of one's identity. There is no desperation. There is only LIVING, and loving life and the chance for learning "the deep things" that it offers.

Answer 5

Something like. . .learn from your mistakes. The next time misfortune comes around you will handle it differently and have a different outcome. It is a play on words too...misfortune and fortune.

Answer 6

most ppl dont have the 'nads' to act on their deeper interests and passions, so they surrender their entire life to a second rate compromise.....

"the cemetary is full of potential"

GL

Answer 7

people often live feeling one way, but never saying anything about it or acting on it; even if it makes them miserable...how sad! say what you feel before it's too late!!!

Answer 8

It took 8 years for a great explanation thanks cecile