I left the woods for as good a reason as I went there.

Perhaps it seemed to me that I had several more lives to live,

and could not spare any more time for that one.

It is remarkable how easily and insensibly we fall into a particular route,

and make a beaten track for ourselves.

I had not lived there a week before my feet wore a path

from my door to the pond-side;

and though it is five or six years since I trod it,

it is still quite distinct.

It is true, I fear, that others may have fallen into it,

and so helped to keep it open.

The surface of the earth is soft and impressible by the feet of men;

and so with the paths which the mink travels.

How worn and dusty, then, must be the highways of the world,

how deep the ruts of tradition and conformity !

I did not wish to take a cabin passage,

but rather to go before the mast and on the deck of the world,

for there I could best see the moonlight amid the mountains.

I do not wish to go below now.


─Henry K. Thoreau (1817-1862) Walden




我離開森林的理由，和我搬進森林的理由一樣。
我認為我或許有各種不同的生活要過，不能再把時間號在森林裡了。
令人訝異的是人們很容易走已經走過的路，不自覺地就延襲著某個特定道路。
我在森林裡呆了還不到一個星期，就踩出了一條從門前通往池畔的小徑。
五、六年過去了，小徑依然清晰可辨。
我真擔心別人也會因循這條路，讓它一直通暢。
大地表面很鬆軟，人走過之後會留下足跡，內在旅程的道路也是如此。
世上的道路，又破又髒，傳統與依循的撤痕，如此之深！
我不想在船艙的通道裡逛，寧可走到桅桿前，站在世界的甲板上，
藉已看清楚重山之中的月色。
我現在並不想走下船艙。


─美國作家及思想家 亨利‧梭羅
《湖濱散記》