Source identified
Read & copy the quotation
“I am not alone if I stand by myself.”
- Date
- 1849
Meaning of “I am not alone if I stand by…”
Thoreau separates physical solitude from helpless isolation: while navigating alone in the mountains, he insists that standing by oneself need not mean being lost or without inner resources.
Where does it come from?
A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, in the mountain-travel passage represented by Project Gutenberg #4232. The line follows Thoreau's argument that travellers often exaggerate difficulties and that a person who thinks himself lost can recover steadiness by recognizing where he actually stands.
