I’ve often seen this passage by Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Ode to William H. Channing used on Simple Living or Voluntary Simplicity blogs. But they always take it out of context and just say “Things are in the saddle and ride mankind”. When you read the entire poem, you understand that “things” are meant to include more than just color televisions, and if we were to literally try to get off the saddle we’d have to be naked with no possessions. Simple living isn’t so simple, really, when you include plants, animals and other things that you have to take care of.

Complete quote (one verse out of the poem):

The horseman serves the horse,
The neat-herd serves the neat,
The merchant serves the purse,
The eater serves his meat;
‘Tis the day of the chattel,
Web to weave, and corn to grind,
Things are in the saddle,
And ride mankind.

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