Walden

the white man’s to buy them. He had not discovered that it was
necessary for him to make it worth the other’s while to buy them, or at
least make him think that it was so, or to make something else which it
would be worth his while to buy. I too had woven a kind of basket of a
delicate texture, but I had not made it worth any one’s while to buy
them. Yet not the less, in my case, did I think it worth my while to
weave them, and instead of studying how to make it worth men’s while to
buy my baskets, I studied rather how to avoid the necessity of selling
them. The life which men praise and regard as successful is but one
kind. Why should we exaggerate any one kind at the expense of the
others?

Finding that my fellow-citizens were not likely to offer me any room in
the court house, or any curacy or living any where else, but I must
shift for myself, I turned my face more exclusively than ever to the
woods, where I was better known. I determined to go into business at
once, and not wait to acquire the usual capital, using such slender
means as I had already got. My purpose in going to Walden Pond was not
to live cheaply nor to live dearly there, but to transact some private