Henry David Thoreau：Walden, Excerpt 115

Some are dinning in our ears that we Americans, and moderns generally, are intellectual dwarfs compared with the ancients, or even the Elizabethan men. But what is that to the purpose? A living dog is better than a dead lion. Shall a man go and hang himself because he belongs to the race of pygmies, and not be the biggest pygmy that he can? Let every one mind his own business, and endeavor to be what he was made.

Source： https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/205
Locator：Excerpt 115 · Verified：2026-10-19 · Verification：Short excerpt

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