Quote

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the cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.

β€” Henry David Thoreau

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What does this quotation mean?

Thoreau measures expense in time and life rather than money alone.

Sources and attribution

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Source: Walden, and On the Duty of Civil Disobedience , Economy

Edition: English electronic text

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From Walden, and On the Duty of Civil Disobedience

Excerpt checked against the linked public-domain English edition. Korean rendering and context note by Quotations; not an authorized translation. Historical punctuation is retained; line breaks and editorial footnote markers are normalized.

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