I preferred some things to others, and especially valued my freedom

“ As I preferred some things to others, and especially valued my freedom, as I could fare hard and yet succeed well, I did not wish to pend my time in earning rich carpets or other fine furniture, or delicate cookery, or a house in the Grecian or the Gothic style just yet. If there are any to whom it is no interruption to acquire these things, and who know how to use them when acquired, I relinquish to them the pursuit. Some are “industrious,” and appear to love labor for its own sake, or perhaps because it keeps them out of worse mischief; to such I have at present nothing to say.”

 

Thoureau, In the Woods