Henry David Thoreau · Walden
“The cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.”
| Source | Henry David Thoreau, Walden (1854), ch. “Economy” |
| Date | 1854 |
| Wording | Exact — verified at Project Gutenberg #205 |
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About This Line
Thoreau wrote this after two years in a cabin he built himself, tracking every expense to the penny. His point wasn’t thrift — it was a unit of measure: the true price of anything is the amount of your one life you hand over to get it.
Why We Carry This Line
Not about money — about hours you don’t get back. I think about this when I say yes to something. I also remember “no” is a complete sentence.
