Walden and Civil Disobedience (Barnes & Noble Signature Editions)

By Henry David Thoreau and Andrew S. Trees

In 1845, when Henry David Thoreau moved into a tiny cabin he built in the woods at Walden Pond, his objective was to conduct a practical and philosophical experiment in living: to simplify his life, to support himself entirely by his own labor, to observe and draw spiritual sustenance from his surroundings. He planted and harvested beans, maintained and improved his cabin, and received guests. He also explored the forests, ponds, and wildlife in the area; took note of natural and man-made sounds; and walked occasionally to the nearby town of Concord, Massachusetts. Just as important, he kept a record of his two years living at the pond, publishing it as Walden; or, Life in the Woods in 1854.

     In 1846, during this experiment in living, Thoreau refused to pay a mandated poll tax, vowing never to support a government that permitted and protected slavery and that had launched an aggressive war against its Mexican neighbor. When he was arrested and jailed, his neighbors were shocked by his flouting of the law. In his essay “Civil Disobedience,” Thoreau argues forcefully that it is the duty of every moral citizen to refuse to cooperate with immoral laws and to be willing to suffer the legal consequences for doing so.

     Walden and “Civil Disobedience”are among the most influential writings by any American. Walden inspired the modern conservation and environmental movements, as well as the creation of America’s national parks. Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. both cited “Civil Disobedience” as the primary source of their ideas on nonviolent protest against injustice.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Barnes & Noble
• Release date: Nov 1, 2012
• ISBN: 9781435141315

Henry David Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) was an American writer, thinker, naturalist, and leading transcendental philosopher. Graduating from Harvard, Thoreau’s academic fortitude inspired much of his political thought and lead to him being an early and unequivocal adopter of the abolition movement. This ideology inspired his writing of Civil Disobedience and countless other works that contributed to his influence on society. Inspired by the principals of transcendental philosophy and desiring to experience spiritual awakening and enlightenment through nature, Thoreau worked hard at reforming his previous self into a man of immeasurable self-sufficiency and contentment. It was through Thoreau’s dedicated pursuit of knowledge that some of the most iconic works on transcendentalism were created.

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CONTENTS

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF HENRY DAVID THOREAU

INTRODUCTION

WALDEN

CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE

ENDNOTES

BASED ON THE BOOK

FURTHER READING

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF HENRY DAVID THOREAU

INTRODUCTION

IF INDIVIDUALISM IS AMERICA’S CREED, HENRY DAVID THOREAU IS one of its primary and most eloquent poets. However, unlike the mainstream conception of individualism, Thoreau’s has nothing to do with material success and social advancement, focusing instead on spiritual improvement and an unflinching non-conformity. As Thoreau famously writes in his masterpiece Walden; or, Life in the Woods, If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away. Thoreau always marched to the beat of his own drummer, and that is one of the primary reasons for his lasting significance. Although he gained only a minor reputation during his lifetime, his work has grown in importance through the years to the point that he is now considered one of the preeminent figures in the American literary canon. His essay Civil Disobedience, little read in his own day, also became remarkably influential, inspiring figures as diverse as Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. From the most humble material—a life of simplicity in and around Concord, Massachusetts—he fashioned a body of work of remarkable power and importance that continues to play a role in American history and American literature.

David Henry Thoreau (he would change the order of his first and middle names after college) was born in Concord, Massachusetts, in 1817 to a family of modest means. Except for a few brief periods, Thoreau spent virtually his entire adult life in Concord. From an early age, Thoreau loved the beauty of the Concord woods. He did well at grammar school and was the only child in his family to attend college, graduating from Harvard College in 1837. He concentrated on Greek and Latin and developed a love for the classical writers, which is readily apparent in his work. He resigned from his first job as a teacher in the Concord public schools because of his opposition to corporal punishment for students (the kind of rejection of received wisdom that would mark his entire life). He later opened a private school, which embraced progressive educational methods. His brother, John, joined him as a teacher, but they were forced to close the school after a few years, largely because of John’s poor health. In 1840, Henry took the first tentative steps in his literary career, publishing a poem and an essay in the inaugural issue of the Dial, a transcendentalist quarterly magazine. Throughout his life, Thoreau was associated with transcendentalism, an American literary and philosophical movement centered around Ralph Waldo Emerson. The movement was critical of unthinking conformity, believed that wisdom came from nature, and argued that experience was essential to understanding.

Emerson and Thoreau were close for most of their lives. Emerson influenced Thoreau’s thinking about nature and life, and he encouraged Thoreau to pursue a literary career. Emerson called for the emancipation of American literature from European models and suggested that writers focus on familiar, indigenous materials. Thoreau’s literary career was in many ways a fulfillment of Emerson’s hope. Thoreau lived and worked in the Emerson household for a short time and built his Walden Pond cabin on Emerson’s land.

In addition to his lectures, essays, and poems, Thoreau published two books during his lifetime. But that captures only a fraction of his writings. In the 1850s, as it became apparent to him that he was not destined for great success as a writer, Thoreau increasingly turned his attention to his journal. Although he had been keeping a journal since 1837, his focus became more rigorous and systematic, and his journal entries grew more developed and polished. After contracting tuberculosis, he died in 1862. By that time, his journals had grown to forty-seven volumes, containing more than two million words.

The decisive step in his literary career came after the death of his beloved brother, John. Thoreau decided to write a book celebrating his brother’s memory by recounting a two-week boating trip they had taken on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (published as A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers in 1849). To reduce his expenses and to give himself the privacy and time to write, he decided to build a small cabin near Walden Pond, where he lived from July 1845 to September 1847. But he also saw the experience as an opportunity to conduct a kind of experiment in radical independence by largely cutting himself off from the normal dictates of society, such as holding a regular job. He kept detailed notes about his experience in his journal, and he gave several lectures about his undertaking to satisfy the curiosity of the townsfolk (some of whom believed Thoreau’s experiment in living was little more than an excuse to avoid hard work).

Walden eventually became something far richer than Thoreau’s answer to his neighbors. Because Thoreau’s book about his river trip with his brother was an abysmal failure (selling only 219 copies in four years), his publisher rejected Walden; Thoreau then used the time to rework the manuscript extensively. In total, he labored on it for almost a decade, revising it seven times and making it a much deeper and more polished work. With the help of some friends, he was finally able to get it published in 1854.

Although hardly a simple book, Walden is structured in a straightforward way. While he lived at the cabin for more than two years, Thoreau condensed the material to a single year, which allowed him to focus on the natural cycle of death and rebirth. The first chapter, Economy, acts as the book’s introduction, laying out the spiritual and economic problems that Thoreau saw in the world. The middle chapters set forth Thoreau’s attempt to lead a different life, which becomes a kind of pilgrimage (primarily inward and spiritual in nature). And his conclusion encourages his readers to apply to their own lives what he has discovered from his life at Walden Pond.

In some ways, Walden can be read as a lament for a disappearing America, as a predominantly rural, agricultural life that followed the seasons gave way to an industrialized, urban life guided by the clock. He was not the only one critical of the world in which he found himself. In the wake of the Second Great Awakening, a religious revival that ran through America like a firestorm in the first half of the nineteenth century, numerous reform groups sprang up attacking everything from slavery to the consumption of alcohol. Some groups even formed utopian societies dedicated to providing a model for the rest of the country to follow, including a group of New England transcendentalists. Thoreau was invited to join, but he characteristically declined. As always, he preferred to go his own way. As he states in Walden, I find it wholesome to be alone the greater part of the time. To be in company, even with the best, is soon wearisome and dissipating. . . . I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude.

Although many Americans welcomed the changes created by a growing market economy, particularly the material prosperity that accompanied it, Thoreau saw the costs, and the first chapter of Walden presents a withering critique. Thoreau argues that people spend all of their time and energy trying to acquire new luxuries, even though that rarely leads to human happiness. He examines the busy striving of his neighbors and does not see prosperity. He sees desolation. As he famously writes in Walden, The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.

Thoreau argues for a different idea of economy, one built not on wealth but on freedom, particularly the freedom to spend one’s time on things other than working for money. In Walden, he writes that the cost of something is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run. Thoreau aimed to spend as little time acquiring as possible. He writes, in what could be taken as his motto, Simplify, simplify. He claims that his greatest skill has been to want but little. For Thoreau, solitude and close communion with nature offered far more wealth than material possessions. Instead of spending time in pursuit of things, Thoreau tried to look deeply into the meaning of life. In a kind of statement of purpose, he notes in the book, 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 wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life.

Walden is carefully structured in a number of ways. Most simply, it follows the seasons of the year and also emphasizes the cycle of the day. Walden Pond is a central symbol in the book and becomes more than a physical presence. At times, it acts as a symbol of purity and even as a measure of a man’s spiritual character. Although the book contains a wide variety of allusions, there are three main sources: Eastern religious texts, such as the Bhagavad-Gita; ancient Greek and Roman writers, particularly Homer; and the Bible.

While largely written in a conversational style, Walden is not a simple book. Thoreau’s thinking evolves throughout so that it never settles into a self-satisfied judgment of his neighbors. At a number of points, he no longer seems to see his experience as an example to others but as a personal quest beset with doubt and uncertainty. His prose requires close, attentive reading. Thoreau labored over the text, and his words are often charged with more than the surface meaning. Because of this, Thoreau expected a great deal from his readers, as he made readily apparent in the book itself. He disparages most readers, writing, I confess I do not make any very broad distinction between the illiterateness of my townsman who cannot read at all and the illiterateness of him who has learned to read only what is for children and feeble intellects. He calls for a kind of strenuous reading, claiming that reading requires a training such as the athletes underwent . . . Books must be read as deliberately and reservedly as they were written. There was a philosophical reason behind Thoreau’s somewhat daunting expectations. To reach the truth, he believed that you had to scrape through the corruptions of meanings, an etymological quest with spiritual ramifications. And Thoreau’s arguments are rarely delivered in a linear, logical fashion but are implied through language, structure, and images.

The ambition of Thoreau’s undertaking makes Walden a difficult book to classify. There are elements of a variety of genres embedded in it, including natural history, social criticism, moral philosophy, autobiography, and domestic economy, to name only a few. While not a blockbuster success, Walden was favorably received. Of the nearly one hundred reviews, nearly all were positive, and the book sold almost two thousand copies in its first year. But it would prove to be the final book that Thoreau published during his lifetime. And it would take almost a century for Thoreau and his masterpiece to receive their due. The book had a surge of popularity during the 1930s when the Great Depression forced a way of life on many Americans that was similar to Thoreau’s experiment in the woods. Later, for those rebelling against American conformity in the 1960s, Thoreau seemed like a prophet a century ahead of his time. His anti-materialism, radical individualism, and concern for the environment all spoke with prescience to the rising generation. Today, Walden is recognized as one of the key works of American literature and is widely revered.

Although Walden is his masterpiece, it is not Thoreau’s most influential piece of writing. That honor goes to his essay Resistance to Civil Government, later and better known as Civil Disobedience. In July 1846, while he was living in his cabin by Walden Pond, Thoreau refused to pay his poll tax as a form of protest against the US government’s support of slavery and its war with Mexico, which he and many others saw as an unjust conflict driven by a desire to expand slavery over a larger territory. He spent a night in jail in Concord before an anonymous person paid the tax for him (over his objections). Thoreau’s response to this experience became one of the most influential essays in history.

Thoreau originally delivered a lecture about his refusal to pay his poll tax at the Concord Lyceum in Concord, Massachusetts, on January 26, 1848, under the title The Relation of the Individual to the State. The lecture was circulated a year later in the periodical Aesthetic Papers under a new title, Resistance to Civil Government. It was also included in Thoreau’s 1866 volume A Yankee in Canada, with Anti-Slavery and Reform Papers. In this collection, the essay received the title by which it is known today: Civil Disobedience.

In some ways, the essay can be seen as a companion piece to Walden because it embodies Thoreau’s radical individualism as well as his refusal to offer passive support to institutions that he objected to, in this case the US government itself. Thoreau disliked most social institutions, which was one of the reasons behind his escape into the woods. As he writes in Walden, Wherever a man goes, men will pursue and paw him with their dirty institutions, and, if they can, constrain him to belong to their desperate odd-fellow society. In Civil Disobedience, Thoreau places individual conscience above any societal constraints. He argues that with any conflict between conscience and civil law, an individual should follow his conscience and violate unjust laws to help bring about their repeal. He insists that it is not enough merely to speak out against an injustice—one must also act.

The essay is different in tone and scope from Walden. It is interested not primarily in aesthetic matters but in moving the reader to action. Thoreau develops this argument by setting up a number of oppositions. Perhaps the most important is conscience versus expediency. According to Thoreau, governments operate according to expediency, but the individual is capable of more. For Thoreau, there is a higher, spiritual law that supersedes civil law, and an individual must obey this higher law, even if it comes with a cost. For Thoreau, the individual is superior to the state not just in moral character but also in actual strength, and an individual who acts on principle can overcome even the tyranny of the majority.

Thoreau’s essay was not widely read during his lifetime, and it was largely forgotten for decades until it was rediscovered around the beginning of the twentieth century. Mohandas Gandhi, the primary political and spiritual leader of the Indian independence movement, was probably introduced to the essay by a British biographer of Thoreau. Thoreau’s ideas helped shape Gandhi’s own campaign of nonviolent resistance to British rule, which spread Thoreau’s ideas throughout the world. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who first rose to prominence as the leader of the 1955–6 Montgomery bus boycott and was a central figure throughout the African-American struggle for civil rights in the 1950s and 1960s, was also influenced by the essay. In fact, Thoreau’s ideas played an important role in shaping the views of many of those involved in the civil rights movement’s nonviolent protests.

During his lifetime, Thoreau achieved little recognition for his work. He was often dismissed as a mere imitator of Emerson. At the time of his death, he had a modest reputation, having achieved some small renown for Walden, but he was generally seen as a minor writer who would be forgotten. He would have to wait until the twentieth century to achieve the recognition he deserved. In 1906, Houghton Mifflin brought out a twenty-four volume edition of his works, which allowed critics to begin to grasp the scope and reach of his talents. Perhaps even more importantly, the 1920s and 1930s were a period when literary historians became interested in establishing a distinctly American literary canon and rediscovered not just Thoreau but other neglected artists, such Herman Melville and Emily Dickinson.

Today, Thoreau is recognized as one of America’s great prose stylists. In addition, he is viewed as a pioneering ecologist and conservationist, and his warnings about our relationship with the natural world seem increasingly prescient with each passing year. Even his radical individualism with its strong anti-materialist slant continues to find fertile soil in our increasingly materialistic world. Every year new readers discover Thoreau’s tale of a life lived simply but fully in the woods and become inspired to embrace his advice to march to the beat of their own drummer.

Andrew S. Trees has a Ph.D. in American history and an M.A. in literature from the University of Virginia. He has written on a wide range of topics, including a book on the founding fathers, as well as two novels, Academy X and Club Rules.

WALDEN

CHAPTER ONE

ECONOMY

WHEN I WROTE THE FOLLOWING PAGES, OR RATHER THE BULK OF them, I lived alone, in the woods, a mile from any neighbor, in a house which I had built myself, on the shore of Walden Pond, in Concord, Massachusetts, and earned my living by the labor of my hands only. I lived there two years and two months. At present I am a sojourner in civilized life again.

I should not obtrude my affairs so much on the notice of my readers if very particular inquiries had not been made by my townsmen concerning my mode of life, which some would call impertinent, though they do not appear to me at all impertinent, but, considering the circumstances, very natural and pertinent. Some have asked what I got to eat; if I did not feel lonesome; if I was not afraid; and the like. Others have been curious to learn what portion of my income I devoted to charitable purposes; and some, who have large families, how many poor children I maintained. I will therefore ask those of my readers who feel no particular interest in me to pardon me if I undertake to answer some of these questions in this book. In most books, the I, or first person, is omitted; in this it will be retained; that, in respect to egotism, is the main difference. We commonly do not remember that it is, after all, always the first person that is speaking. I should not talk so much about myself if there were anybody else whom I knew as well. Unfortunately, I am confined to this theme by the narrowness of my experience. Moreover, I, on my side, require of every writer, first or last, a simple and sincere account of his own life, and not merely what he has heard of other men’s lives; some such account as he would send to his kindred from a distant land; for if he has lived sincerely, it must have been in a distant land to me. Perhaps these pages are more particularly addressed to poor students. As for the rest of my readers, they will accept such portions as apply to them. I trust that none will stretch the seams in putting on the coat, for it may do good service to him whom it fits.

I would fain say something, not so much concerning the Chinese and Sandwich Islanders¹ as you who read these pages, who are said to live in New England; something about your condition, especially your outward condition or circumstances in this world, in this town, what it is, whether it is necessary that it be as bad as it is, whether it cannot be improved as well as not. I have travelled a good deal in Concord; and everywhere, in shops, and offices, and fields, the inhabitants have appeared to me to be doing penance in a thousand remarkable ways. What I have heard of Bramins² sitting exposed to four fires and looking in the face of the sun; or hanging suspended, with their heads downward, over flames; or looking at the heavens over their shoulders until it becomes impossible for them to resume their natural position, while from the twist of the neck nothing but liquids can pass into the stomach; or dwelling, chained for life, at the foot of a tree; or measuring with their bodies, like caterpillars, the breadth of vast empires; or standing on one leg on the tops of pillars—even these forms of conscious penance are hardly more incredible and astonishing than the scenes which I daily witness. The twelve labors of Hercules were trifling in comparison with those which my neighbors have undertaken; for they were only twelve, and had an end; but I could never see that these men slew or captured any monster or finished any labor. They have no friend Iolaus³ to burn with a hot iron the root of the hydra’s head, but as soon as one head is crushed, two spring up.

I see young men, my townsmen, whose misfortune it is to have inherited farms, houses, barns, cattle, and farming tools; for these are more easily acquired than got rid of. Better if they had been born in the open pasture and suckled by a wolf, that they might have seen with clearer eyes what field they were called to labor in. Who made them serfs of the soil? Why should they eat their sixty acres, when man is condemned to eat only his peck of dirt? Why should they begin digging their graves as soon as they are born? They have got to live a man’s life, pushing all these things before them, and get on as well as they can. How many a poor immortal soul have I met well-nigh crushed and smothered under its load, creeping down the road of life, pushing before it a barn seventy-five feet by forty, its Augean stables never cleansed, and one hundred acres of land, tillage, mowing, pasture, and woodlot! The portionless, who struggle with no such unnecessary inherited encumbrances, find it labor enough to subdue and cultivate a few cubic feet of flesh.

But men labor under a mistake. The better part of the man is soon plowed into the soil for compost. By a seeming fate, commonly called necessity, they are employed, as it says in an old book, laying up treasures which moth and rust will corrupt and thieves break through and steal. It is a fool’s life, as they will find when they get to the end of it, if not before. It is said that Deucalion and Pyrrha⁴ created men by throwing stones over their heads behind them—

Inde genus durum sumus, experiensque laborum,

Et documenta damus qua simus origine nati.

Or, as Raleigh rhymes it in his sonorous way—

From thence our kind hard-hearted is, enduring pain and care,

Approving that our bodies of a stony nature are.

So much for a blind obedience to a blundering oracle, throwing the stones over their heads behind them, and not seeing where they fell.

Most men, even in this comparatively free country, through mere ignorance and mistake, are so occupied with the factitious cares and superfluously coarse labors of life that its finer fruits cannot be plucked by them. Their fingers, from excessive toil, are too clumsy and tremble too much for that. Actually, the laboring man has not leisure for a true integrity day by day; he cannot afford to sustain the manliest relations to men; his labor would be depreciated in the market. He has no time to be anything but a machine. How can he remember well his ignorance—which his growth requires—who has so often to use his knowledge? We should feed and clothe him gratuitously sometimes, and recruit him with our cordials, before we judge of him. The finest qualities of our nature, like the bloom on fruits, can be preserved only by the most delicate handling. Yet we do not treat ourselves nor one another thus tenderly.

Some of you, we all know, are poor, find it hard to live, are sometimes, as it were, gasping for breath. I have no doubt that some of you who read this book are unable to pay for all the dinners which you have actually eaten, or for the coats and shoes which are fast wearing or are already worn out, and have come to this page to spend borrowed or stolen time, robbing your creditors of an hour. It is very evident what mean and sneaking lives many of you live, for my sight has been whetted by experience; always on the limits, trying to get into business and trying to get out of debt, a very ancient slough, called by the Latins aes alienum, another’s brass, for some of their coins were made of brass; still living, and dying, and buried by this other’s brass; always promising to pay, promising to pay, tomorrow, and dying today, insolvent; seeking to curry favor, to get custom, by how many modes, only not state-prison offenses; lying, flattering, voting, contracting yourselves into a nutshell of civility or dilating into an atmosphere of thin and vaporous generosity, that you may persuade your neighbor to let you make his shoes, or his hat, or his coat, or his carriage, or import his groceries for him; making yourselves sick, that you may lay up something against a sick day, something to be tucked away in an old chest, or in a stocking behind the plastering, or, more safely, in the brick bank; no matter where, no matter how much or how little.

I sometimes wonder that we can be so frivolous, I may almost say, as to attend to the gross but somewhat foreign form of servitude called Negro Slavery, there are so many keen and subtle masters that enslave both North and South. It is hard to have a Southern overseer; it is worse to have a Northern one; but worst of all when you are the slave-driver of yourself. Talk of a divinity in man! Look at the teamster on the highway, wending to market by day or night; does any divinity stir within him? His highest duty to fodder and water his horses! What is his destiny to him compared with the shipping interests? Does not he drive for Squire Make-a-stir? How godlike, how immortal, is he? See how he cowers and sneaks, how vaguely all the day he fears, not being immortal nor divine, but the slave and prisoner of his own opinion of himself, a fame won by his own deeds. Public opinion is a weak tyrant compared with our own private opinion. What a man thinks of himself, that it is which determines, or rather indicates, his fate. Self-emancipation even in the West Indian provinces of the fancy and imagination—what Wilberforce⁵ is there to bring that about? Think, also, of the ladies of the land weaving toilet cushions against the last day, not to betray too green an interest in their fates! As if you could kill time without injuring eternity.

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation. From the desperate city you go into the desperate country, and have to console yourself with the bravery of minks and muskrats. A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind. There is no play in them, for this comes after work. But it is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.

When we consider what, to use the words of the catechism, is the chief end of man, and what are the true necessaries and means of life, it appears as if men had deliberately chosen the common mode of living because they preferred it to any other. Yet they honestly think there is no choice left. But alert and healthy natures remember that the sun rose clear. It is never too late to give up our prejudices. No way of thinking or doing, however ancient, can be trusted without proof. What everybody echoes or in silence passes by as true today may turn out to be falsehood tomorrow, mere smoke of opinion, which some had trusted for a cloud that would sprinkle fertilizing rain on their fields. What old people say you cannot do, you try and find that you can. Old deeds for old people, and new deeds for new. Old people did not know enough once, perchance, to fetch fresh fuel to keep the fire a-going; new people put a little dry wood under a pot, and are whirled round the globe with the speed of birds, in a way to kill old people, as the phrase is. Age is no better, hardly so well, qualified for an instructor as youth, for it has not profited so much as it has lost. One may almost doubt if the wisest man has learned anything of absolute value by living. Practically, the old have no very important advice to give the young, their own experience has been so partial, and their lives have been such miserable failures, for private reasons, as they must believe; and it may be that they have some faith left which belies that experience, and they are only less young than they were. I have lived some thirty years on this planet, and I have yet to hear the first syllable of valuable or even earnest advice from my seniors. They have told me nothing, and probably cannot tell me anything to the purpose. Here is life, an experiment to a great extent untried by me; but it does not avail me that they have tried it. If I have any experience which I think valuable, I am sure to reflect that this my Mentors said nothing about.

One farmer says to me, You cannot live on vegetable food solely, for it furnishes nothing to make bones with; and so he religiously devotes a part of his day to supplying his system with the raw material of bones; walking all the while he talks behind his oxen, which, with vegetable-made bones, jerk him and his lumbering plow along in spite of every obstacle. Some things are really necessaries of life in some circles, the most helpless and diseased, which in others are luxuries merely, and in others still are entirely unknown.

The whole ground of human life seems to some to have been gone over by their predecessors, both the heights and the valleys, and all things to have been cared for. According to Evelyn, the wise Solomon prescribed ordinances for the very distances of trees; and the Roman praetors have decided how often you may go into your neighbor’s land to gather the acorns which fall on it without trespass, and what share belongs to that neighbor. Hippocrates⁶ has even left directions how we should cut our nails; that is, even with the ends of the fingers, neither shorter nor longer. Undoubtedly the very tedium and ennui which presume to have exhausted the variety and the joys of life are as old as Adam. But man’s capacities have never been measured; nor are we to judge of what he can do by any precedents, so little has been tried. Whatever have been thy failures hitherto, be not afflicted, my child, for who shall assign to thee what thou hast left undone?

We might try our lives by a thousand simple tests; as, for instance, that

Reviews for Walden and Civil Disobedience (Barnes & Noble Signature Editions)

[stahl2ricco · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately…”I am reading this at Scout Camp in the Sierra Mountains. We are in Emigrant Gap in California, at an elevation of 5,389 feet, and Chubb Lake is standing in for Walden Pond. And it’s 2022, not 1845. It was a bit dry, but extremely impactful! And I was in the perfect setting to absorb it! I loved so many quotes in the book and wrote down my most favorites below. After finishing the book, I really believe it should be a requirement for everyone on planet Earth to read. That's how important I think it is.“The evil that men do lives after them.”“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.”“Birds do not sing in caves…”“But lo! men have become the tools of their tools.”“There is no odor so bad as that which arises from goodness tainted.”“There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root…”“Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in.”“How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book!”“…but nothing can deter a poet, for he is actuated by love.”“Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.”“Enjoy the land, but own it not.”“We should be blessed if we lived in the present always, and took advantage of every accident that befell us, like the grass which confesses the influence of the slightest dew that falls on it; and did not spend our time in atoning for the neglect of past opportunities, which we call doing our duty. We loiter in winter while it is already spring.”“Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.”“We can never have enough of nature.”“…if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”“The faultfinder will find faults even in paradise.”“Patriotism is a maggot in their heads.”“For my part, I could easily do without the post office.” - (this is a particular favorite of mine, as I am a USPS letter carrier!)

[gmomaj · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Sparked by Thoreau’s outrage at American slavery and the American-Mexican war, Civil Disobedience is a call for every citizen to value his conscience above his government. Within this 19th century essay, Thoreau explains government of any sort – including democracy – does not possess more wisdom or justice than its individual citizens, and that it is every citizen’s responsibility to avoid acquiescence. More than an essay, Civil Disobedience is a call to action for all citizens to refuse to participate in, or encourage in any way, an unjust institution.

[064-699196 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

"To read well, that is, to read true books in a true spirit, is a noble exercise, and one that will task the reader more than any exercise which the customs of the day esteem."Thoreau has to be one of the most complex and most insightful authors I have ever read. Compared to most of us in today's rat race, Thoreau seemed, even back then, to have a great dislike for the hustle and bustle his townsfolk were enveloped in, and sought refuge in a cabin of his construction near Walden Pond for about 2 years. He eagerly describes his surroundings and observations, from a seemingly epic battle between ants, to the different hues of colors he observes in Walden Pond throughout the seasons.It was one of the most challenging reads of my life, but one book I am so glad to have read. Thoreau had a lot of wisdom for someone of his time. What threw me off at times were his references to things like ancient history when he discusses his narrative of whatever he happens to be talking about at that time, which seems kind of random at times. It can be fairly easy to get lost at times, but keep in mind, this was written in the mid 1800's. Sometimes, it felt like reading this book was a lengthy homework assignment. Even still, it was a pleasure to have read this masterpiece. I suggest giving this a read if you have the patience for a deep and enlightening read.

[librolindsay · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

During high school, I loved Emerson, read him in depth, but I couldn't for the life of me get into Thoreau, and so I winged it (luckily the teacher didn't test us on it). But when the two were assigned side by side in college, it was all I could do to trudge through Emerson. Instead, I delighted sitting out on my fire escape on a cool late summer evening turning page after page of Thoreau. Yes, I know the real story behind his "live deliberately" ethos wasn't quite so romantic, and yes, I've heard a whole lot about his less-than-savory personality traits, but this is thrilling idealism! I wish I had a tiny version of this book to tote around with me for snippets of empowerment.

[fulner · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

The incoherent ramblings of a pompous old man you think she knows better than everyone else and is too lazy to work.

[scottcholstad · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Meh. I have never been able to buy Walden. I think a primary reason is I've read too much background context and all sorts of details surrounding Thoreau's life prior to writing this, at the time of writing it, and immediately after and as a result, I long ago concluded that this is virtually fraud. Sadly, simply total bullshit and bizarrely vastly overrated. Not recommended under any circumstance.

[dantarlin · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

So I thought I should read this Classic, which I had never done. It was exciting to come to a familiar line "Most men live lives of quiet desperation" near the start, but alas no other lines stirred my memory.I was struck by how preachy the book was- reading now as a man in his 50s, Walden struck me as the ramblings of a smart 20-something guy who thinks he knows everything. A long first chapter denotes his brilliant (yet so easy and obvious!) economy in striking out on his own in the woods, living cheaply and simply. He preaches that any of us could give up the foolish trappings of civilization and live the simpler life. (And yet he returns to civilization after 2 years there- maybe there's something to that after all).Much of the book rambles on about the wonders of nature, including many references to specific animals and plants about which I know little and have little interest. For those interested in such things, it might be a better read.

[jscape2000 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I couldn’t finish it. I just don’t care about this dead white guy’s opinion on how people should live or be educated. I just don’t care.

[skyeval · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I almost found the book at odds with the famous quotes that are gleaned from it. Not sure why, but I thought this was going to be an easy read about nature! Wrong. It is a very complex read, and although fairly short, it takes a long time to read. Also, I found Thoreau a bit stodgy and judgmental. I kept giving him a lot of leeway because of the time period it was written. Although some very good ideas and quotes come from this book, I am not so sure it would be considered a classic today. In all honesty, I haven't read Civil Disobedience yet and understand that it is much more relevant for our times.

[justagirlwithabook · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I had to read this text when I was in undergrad for English lit. While I absolutely hated my American lit class, I did enjoy Thoreau (for the most part) and especially his Civil Disobedience which is more applicable these days than not.

[brakketh-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Beautiful in places and shows an appreciation of nature but as with many books like this I feel a little like the thinking is that the natural way is best whereas I feel like we should attempt to build from this.

[jnmwheels · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I trudged through about half and gave up.

[dpevers_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

While it can be a bit of a tough or boring read at times, well worth the effort. While not everyone will have the luxury of 'escaping' in the woods to try and be self-sufficient, all can learn about themselves, their beliefs, their political leanings, the environment, and how to be a better observer by reading Walden.

[gypsysmom_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I listened to the entire book but it was a hard struggle. I think part of the problem may have been the narrator but part was also how Thoreau organized his chapters. I really found that it was hard to be interested in how much he spent to build his hut or what he ate day to day. On the other hand his descriptions of the wildlife and the different seasons were almost poetic.However, now I can tick Walden off my list of books that I have always meant to read.

[ericfitz08 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A great manifesto on nature/living/faith/philosophy. At times thoreau approaches the pretentious. Speaking as a male college graduate in his early twenties-as Thoreau was during his time at Walden-I get living the simple life. We've all cut down the luxeries (relatively) living off ramen, strarbucks Wifi, and Pabst Blue Ribbon, but when hes passing judgement on a poor family for working to hard for the sake of silly luxeries like meet and good clothes it seems much. Those critiques aside, Thoreau's masterpiece is a great read and only more relevent as our lives become more indoor-oriented, more connected, constantly stimulated, and never alone. And Civil Disobedience is a fine take on American democracy, possibly the last honest political document in this country. I don't agree with all of it, which only makes me appreciate it more as it can never be hijacked by either political party.

[bookworm12_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Thoreau wrote this infamous book after deciding he was sick and tired of his busy city life in Concord, Massachusetts. In 1845 he left the city and moved to an isolated cabin on Walden Pond. He spent two years there, farming and living off the land. When he returned home he decided to write about his experience and this book is the results. The book is a mixed bag of literary gems, pontification, wise advice and tedious daily chores. I kept stumbling across so many famous quotes that I didn’t realize originated in this text. I also grew tired of his exhausting catalogue of his daily labors. Thoreau was around 30 when he wrote the book and there are bits that are insufferably cocky. I’m younger than he was then, but I can still understand that older generations have wisdom to offer us. At one point he goes on a rant about the fact that just because people have lived longer than him doesn’t make them expert in life and they shouldn’t be trying to give him advice. I wonder if Thoreau ever re-read those words when he was older and regretted his hubris. Yet there were also lessons that resonated with me 150 years after they were originally written. The main one was the importance he placed on giving yourself time to reflect in solitude. We need to take breaks from society (especially from social media) to put our lives in perspective and make sure we have our priorities straight. That’s even more important today than it was then. Thoreau talks about us filling our lives to the brim and leaving no room for reflection; imagine what he would say if he heard about facebook and twitter and the nonstop stream of television that fills our every waking hour! BOTTOM LINE: There are parts of this book I just loved to pieces, and those were absolutely 5 star sections for me. But there are also a lot of bits that talk in detail about what he did each day (fishing, gardening, etc.) and those parts really dragged. It’s definitely worth reading for all of the gems you stumble upon, but don’t expect a quick, light read. “It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look, which morally we can do. To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts. Every man is tasked to make his life, even in its details, worthy of the contemplation of his most elevated and critical hour.”“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation.”“A written word is the choicest of relics. It is something at once more intimate with us and more universal than any other work of art. It is the work of art nearest to life itself. It may be translated into every language, and not only be read but actually breathed from all human lips; -- not be represented on canvas or in marble only, but be carved out of the breath of life itself.”“I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like 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.”“If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours.”

[benuathanasia · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Shoot me...shoot me now. I went into Walden thoroughly expecting to abhor it. In fact, I did for the first chapter or so. I found Thoreau to be narrow sighted and judgemental. He claimed not to begrudge anyone their own choice of living style, but spent over two hours telling everyone why their way of living was wrong and why his was the best. The life he had carved for himself seemed to be dedicated to simply living (not just living simply) instead of actually finding enjoyment out of those things not available to us in nature.

[renderedtruth · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book was recommended to me by a sociology professor at a junior college. I read it and give the book a very high mark for providing me with a plan in life.Thoreau taught me that 'every journey begins with a single step.' There is more to this lovely work but that is the part that most impressed me at the first reading.

[bexaplex · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Walden is an American masterpiece: a story of renewal, and a statement of the individual's responsibility to himself, to society and to the world at large. The seasonal cycle of the book sort of drills down into contemplation, so that you are eased into winter, and deeper thought.Whenever I pick up Walden, I always expect an ecstatic tract a la Muir, and forget how humorous Thoreau is. He uses awful puns, he jibes at his own lack of commercial success, he makes fun of his fellow Concordians. What a wonderful dinner guest he must have been — stubborn and entertaining.

[polaris4_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A deserved classic.

[borg6mx5 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I think Walden is overrated. While Thoreau was waxing poetic, I never felt he lived what he said. After all, he usually wandered into town and into the pub to do his writing.

[dele2451 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A timeless classic that is as relevant today as it was when it was written -- possibly even more so. If you haven't read it already, stop looking at this review and go find a copy right now!

[fredsmeegle · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I started reading this book years ago. I found it a difficult read, because I've always had trouble concentrating on books with a great deal of description. But it's well worth the effort. In many ways, it's a sort of long prose-poem that gets us to experience the life of the earth and the change of the seasons, which we tend to ignore in our own lives, through the author's eyes. But I'm also interested in the New England transcendentalists, and so found Thoreau's philosophical reflections fantastic as well.

[schmerguls · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

3623. Walden or, A Life in the Woods and On the Duty of Civil Disobedience, by Henry David Thoreau (read Sept 2, 2002) I came into possession of this, and since I had never read such famed works I read the entire book, though I confess without consuming interest. I cannot qualify as a naturalist, and I remember when I read books like The Sea Around Us (3 Aug. 1990) and Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (13 Apr 1996) I could not get interested, and while Walden is much more than an account of viewing nature, this lack of interest was present while I read it. The book on civil disobedience would be enjoyable by an anarchist, but I am not that either, and the course he describes is obviously usually impractical. I suppose I shortchanged Thoreau in not devoting more study to this book.

[pepys_3 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

By far my worst-worn book: it was soaked in sea water at a time I took it with me in a supposed waterproof bag which I dragged floating behind me as I swam to reach a lonely rock one summer day in the Bonifacio Straights, South Corsica (phew!)... When I discovered the damage, pages were glued together with saltwater. But drying it finally allowed me to end my reading. I think Thoreau, even soaked through, would have liked being read in a completely secluded place, with only the sea, the sun and the wind to keep me company.Not an easy book to read for me: many unknown words, sometimes more than one in the same sentence...