“(Having
seen) that the lawyer had only to weave arguments, and by some magic
wealth and standing followed, he had said to himself; I will go into
business; I will weave baskets; it is a thing which I can do.
Thinking that when he had made the baskets he would have done his
part, and then it would be (the lawyer'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 anyone'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.”
Thoreau, 'Walden'.
