As one the books in Penguin’s (very pretty) Great Ideas series, Henry David Thoreau’s Where I Lived, and What I Lived For was a refreshing philosophical treat at a time when I was contemplating how I am choosing to go about my life. The book contains three essays that are a part of Thoreau’s Walden, an exploration of “his solitary and self-sufficient home in the New England woods”. While I liked being able to read the book while waiting for the bus or on the Metro, the three essays contained in the book are also widely available online:

1. Economy
2. Where I Lived, and What I Lived For
3. Winter Animals

Some pertinent quotes:

Public opinion is a weak tyrant compared with our own private opinion. What a man thinks of himself, that is which determines, or rather indicates, his fate.

While civilization has been improving our houses, it has not equally improved the men who are to inhabit them.

I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.