瓦尔登湖，是美国作家亨利·戴维·梭罗所著的一本书名，原文如下：
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartanlike as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or, if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion.
翻译如下：
我去了森林，因为我希望能够有意识地活着，只面对生活中的核心要素，看看自己是否能够从中学到一些东西。我不希望在死亡之际才发现自己从未真正地活过。我不想过着虚假的生活，因为生命实在是太珍贵了；除非非常必要，我也不想做出妥协。我想要深深地活着，尽情地体验生命的美好，像斯巴达勇士一样坚强有力，把生命中的一切与不相干的事物彻底清除，腾出更广阔的领域，把生命逼到绝境，将其化为简单的元素。如果生命显得卑劣，那我便愿意体验它的全部恶心，让整个世界也知道它到底有多蠢笨。而如果生命显得高贵，那我希望通过自己的亲身经历，最终能够真正地了解它，并在我的下一次探索中真实地展现它的美好。
