Genuine, and traceable to the page. The words appear in Walden; or, Life in the Woods (Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1854), chapter 2, “Where I Lived, and What I Lived For,” on page 89 of the first edition. Thoreau wrote it as the closing clause of a longer sentence — his own text runs “…and then I let it lie, fallow perchance, for a man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone.”
“A man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone” Henry David Thoreau, Walden; or, Life in the Woods (Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1854), p. 89, chapter 2, "Where I Lived, and What I Lived For." Verified via quotle.info
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Provenance
The passage in Walden
Work
Walden; or, Life in the Woods
Location
Chapter 2, “Where I Lived, and What I Lived For” — first paragraph, p. 89
First published
9 August 1854 · Ticknor and Fields, Boston
Language
Written in English — no translation involved
An afternoon sufficed to lay out the land into orchard, woodlot, and pasture, and to decide what fine oaks or pines should be left to stand before the door, and whence each blasted tree could be seen to the best advantage; and then I let it lie, fallow perchance, for a man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone.
Walden, ch. 2, p. 89
The familiar quotation begins mid-sentence. Thoreau’s clause opens with a lower-case “for”; popular versions capitalise the “A” and cut the farm loose from its reason.
Searched the scanned text of the 1854 Ticknor and Fields first edition at the Internet Archive ↗ (Boston Public Library’s Rare Books copy). The sentence appears on p. 89, under the running head “WHERE I LIVED.”
Cross-checked the paragraph at Digital Thoreau ↗, whose fluid-text edition carries the identical wording in paragraph 1 of chapter 2.
Checked the specialist reference: Wikiquote’s sourced Walden page ↗ lists the line under Chapter 2, “Where I Lived, and What I Lived For” — matching the first edition.
✓Public domain
Walden; or, Life in the Woods was first published in Boston by Ticknor and Fields on 9 August 1854, so the work — and this sentence with it — has long been in the public domain in the United States. Thoreau wrote in English, so there is no translation whose own copyright could still apply.
Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.
Fact-check
What goes wrong with this one
The attribution itself is solid — no rival claimant, no fabrication, no ghost citation. What travels badly is the wording and the citation: the line is routinely trimmed, stripped of its source, and read as a standalone motto rather than as the reason clause Thoreau actually wrote.
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WordingThe trimmed variant — “the number of things he can afford to let alone” variant
Thoreau wrote “things which he can afford to let alone.” The dropped relative pronoun is everywhere, including on BrainyQuote ↗ and on the Walden Woods Project’s own quotation index ↗, which prints the short form. The full-word version on Goodreads ↗ matches the 1854 text.
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Citation“Henry David Thoreau” with no work at all unsourced
BrainyQuote ↗ gives the line no book, chapter or page — only Thoreau’s dates. Goodreads ↗ names Walden but stops there. The chapter is nameable: Wikiquote’s sourced list ↗ places it in Chapter 2, “Where I Lived, and What I Lived For.”
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ContextThe line read as a free-standing minimalism proverb decontextualised
In Thoreau’s text it is not a maxim but a justification, hinging on a lower-case “for”: he lays out an imagined farm, leaves it fallow, and explains why. The full sentence is readable at Digital Thoreau ↗.
✓Thoreau really wrote it, in these words. The sentence sits on page 89 of the 1854 Ticknor and Fields first edition, which you can turn page by page in the Boston Public Library’s scanned copy ↗.
Context
Why he wrote it
The line is the punchline of a joke about property. In the opening paragraph of chapter 2, Thoreau describes having bought, in his imagination, every farm for a dozen miles around Concord — walking the fields, tasting the wild apples, talking husbandry with each owner, and then quietly withdrawing before any deed changed hands. He calls the habit qualification enough to be “regarded as a sort of real-estate broker by my friends.”
Having laid out one of these imaginary estates into orchard, woodlot and pasture in a single afternoon, he leaves it fallow — and gives his reason. The sentence is not a standalone maxim about minimalism; it is Thoreau explaining why the pleasure of an unbought farm beat the burden of a bought one. A few sentences later comes the real-world proof: he nearly bought the Hollowell place, the seller’s wife changed her mind, and Thoreau — by his own account holding ten cents in the world — let him keep the farm and the ten dollars offered to release him.
…and then I let it lie, fallow perchance.
Read the full story
The chapter opens on page 88 of the 1854 first edition, immediately after the Carew verse that closes “Economy.” The sentence falls on page 89, under the running head “WHERE I LIVED.”
Note the grammar of the original: Thoreau’s clause begins with a lower-case “for.” Every popular rendering silently promotes the clause to a sentence and capitalises the “A” — a harmless edit, but it is the reason the quotation reads as a proverb rather than as an argument.
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Filed under
More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.
1817–1862 · American naturalist, essayist & philosopher
Henry David Thoreau was an American naturalist, essayist, poet and philosopher, born in Concord, Massachusetts on 12 July 1817 and dead at 44 on 6 May 1862. He is best known for Walden, his account of simple living beside Walden Pond, and for the essay “Civil Disobedience” (first published as “Resistance to Civil Government”). He lived at the pond from 4 July 1845 to 6 September 1847; Walden itself did not reach print until Ticknor and Fields published it on 9 August 1854.
For writers & researchers
Cite this
Primary source
Henry D. Thoreau, Walden; or, Life in the Woods (Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1854), 89.
This verification page
Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘A man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone’?” Last verified 7 Aug 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/a-man-is-rich-in-proportion-to-the-number-of-things-which/