“The question is not what you look at, but what you see.”

Emphasising the active, interpretive power of perception · Journal

• Beauty
• Nature
• Truth

“Goodness is the only investment that never fails.”

Presenting moral character as a lasting form of wealth · Walden

• Beauty
• Hope
• Truth

“Things do not change; we change.”

Suggesting that transformation begins in perception and character rather than circumstances · Walden

• Hope
• Time
• Truth

“How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.”

Linking meaningful writing with direct, lived experience · Walden

• Art
• Poetry
• Truth

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

A stark reflection on hidden dissatisfaction and the pressure of conventional life · Walden

• Despair
• Solitude
• Truth