- Paraphrase: "I should not talk so much about myself if there were any body else whom I knew as well" (Pages1/2)
This quote comes from "Walden"'s introduction. Thoreau is directly addressing his audience, and using humor explains why he will be talking about himself (After all it is his life that he is writing about) , not some third person character. At this instance he could also be making a joke/comment about other writers, particularly Biographers. He is saying that they write about other people and characters and stick their noses into other's lives when they in fact know hardly anything about the others lives and instead should be self reflecting.
- "Perhaps these pages are more particularly addressed to poor students." (page 2)
Thoreau establishes who he believes that his audience will be. Now that we know that he is addressing the poorer half of America we (the readers) can establish the tone and put his piece in context.
- "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation" (Page 7)
First of all "quiet desperation"? is juxtaposition. Generally when I think of someone desperate they are not quite. Secondly, this basically sums up the entire chapter Economy. This is Thoreau's thesis statement: that humans strive so hard to achieve their life goal, and never reach it because they are trying too hard. People are blindly following the "bandwagon" on what to do with their life. They are told that they must have a job and save money, so that's what they do, even if they don't necessarily believe in it.
- In the Chapter Economy Thoreau describes a search for three animals: the hound, the bay horse, and the turtle dove. All three of these animals are used in races in real life. Just like everyone around him these beasts have no time to stop, but are constantly competing against one another to get the top title. This metaphor encourages Thoreau’s readers to stop racing for “the next big thing”, jump off the track, and compete for what they are passionate about. Also, to further drive home his message Thoreau does not directly tell the reader to stop in life, but by making this metaphor difficult to understand one has to stop and analyze the writing thus disrupting the flow of the book. Just like you should disrupt the flow of your life.
- "but I could never see that these men slew or captured any monster or finished any labor" (Page 3)
This quote represents Thoreau's view on an average person's labor. He points out how ridiculous it is that every person labors so hard to achieve nothing in return.
- "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" (Page 5)
In this case "finer fruits" is the contemplation of life through philosophy and simplification. Thoreau argues that because men are laboring to achieve a large house and luxurious clothing they cannot earn the beautiful simplistic and rewarding action of contemplating their life and having a higher thought than most men.
- "The necessaries of life for man in this climate may, accurately enough, be distributed under the several heads of Food, Shelter, Clothing, and Fuel." (Page 12)
In this quote Thoreau establishes his argument for the next chapter. On Food he argues to not be gluttonous. On shelter he persuades his reader to not be worried about the luxuriousness of their home because they often cannot pay it off. Thoreau also argues that clothing is for used for two reasons: to keep warm and to show their state of society. Although these items are necessaries anything in too great of a quantity is poisonous.
- Materialistic excess is one of Thoreau's main themes. He argues that the cost of purchasing your own farm far outweighs any benefits from it. Not only are you now forced to labor on it continually, but also it took so much of your life to pay it off.
- "thus have forged their own golden or silver fetters" (Page 16)
Men, in Thoreau's view, are their own demise. By striving for riches and luxuries they bind not only their hands, for they are forever working, but also their minds. They spend so much of their time wasting their lives on wanting the next big thing that they don't have time to commit inner reflection or philosophy.
- We know but few men, a great many coats and breeches"s (Page 21)
People own luxurious amounts of clothing to a point that you have seen more shirts than humans in your lifetime. Clothing should be used a s a sense of warmth, not as a representation of where you stand on the social ladder. Just because you wear an expensive suit does not mean that you deserve respect.
- The head monkey in Paris puts on a traveler's cap and all the monkeys in America do the same." (page 24)
This quote would have fit perfectly in my essay on Fashion. Obviously Thoreau is not talking about monkey's playing dress up, but what he is actually saying is that everyone looks to the main fashion house in Paris for rules on how to dress. Even if they are thousands of miles away. In this way the people have the brains of monkeys because you would be ridiculous to wear something just because someone else is wearing that as well.
- “In the long run men only hit what they aim at” Page 26
This is an alteration of (or maybe it came before) “shoot for the moon and you will land at the stars”. It describes one of Thoreau’s main ideologies of life: that you and you alone are in control of your fate/life, make the most of it.
- “Birds do not sing in caves” page 28
This quote describes Thoreau’s view of houses: they are luxurious cages. In this phrase humans are the “bird” and they cannot think or live their lives in the cages of their houses.
- “savage comforts” page 32
When you think of comfortable you don’t often think of savage. This juxtaposition emphasizes Thoreau’s ideas on luxuries. That they turn human being into "savages" because it traps them and causes them to be unable to think.
- “and when the farmer has got his house, he may not be the richer but the poorer for it, and it be the house that has got him.” Page 33
Men work so hard to attain a house, but really they are wasting away their lives. Not only did it take them ten years to buy the house, but it will also take the rest of their lives to maintain it. They are then passing the fetters onto their children as well by including it in "beloved" inheritance.
- “They think that they must have such a one as their neighbors have.” Page 34
It is a common fact that even today we compare our belongings to others to see how much better one is than the other. However with forever looking over your fence to see whether the grass was greener there you will miss what is happening right in your own yard.
- “men have become the tools of their tools” page 36
The reason man utilizes tools is to enhance their own lives or to achieve something they could not (or not as simply) complete without. There is an argument that modern day technology and social networks turn that paradigm on its head, where man now is being used to update and make relevant the purpose of the technology he is feeding.
- “We have built for this world a family mansion, and for the next a family tomb.” Page 36
This relates to our current world: with the way we are using up our natural resources prices now are lowering (such as gas in the lower 48 reach below 2 dollars) however, the next generation will have to deal with outrageous prices and depleted oil fields. Also, global warming is another issue that the previous generation gave us and we will pass on to the next generation.
- “Who bolsters you? Are you one of the ninety-seven who fail? Or of the three who succeed?.......where there is no house and no houskeeper” page 37
Thoreau is again referring to the uselessness of extravagance. Do the expensive "baubles" or decorations come at the expense of the many poor? He says there is no beauty in things man made that don't fulfill the most basic needs. Thoreau questions whether anything in a home is beautiful if the foundation of the house is not made from honest labor and toil.
- “the civilized man is a more experienced and wiser savage” page 39
It means that someone that is brought up in society has more experiences and such then one who has been brought up in the woods or as a "savage." but none the less, a person is a person and there is the beast in all of us. it means that the savage and the civilized man are the same. the only difference is that the civilized man has been to more places and seen more things, not to mention gone through more experiences, thus being more experienced then the savage man but the same at heart.
- “There is some of the same fitness in a man’s building his own house that there is in a bird’s building its own nest” page 44
Although Thoreau preaches minimizing materials and how a house is a cage he recognizes that it is necessary for protection. By building your own house, he argues, you achieve a sense of accomplishment and you know exactly what is costs to raise it.
- “few are able to tell exactly what their houses cost” page 47
This pun on words has a double meaning first the cost of the house in the form of money and secondly the amount of time of your life that it takes to pay off the debt of your house. While many people are aware of how much money they spent on their house (because they often compare it to everyone else's) they are not aware of how much lfie their cage has sucked from them.
- “I brag for humanity rather than for myself” page 48
Selfless Thoreau puts the world above himself. Earlier he mentions that he will try to wake us (the readers) up and let us think harder about our lives. This quote is bragging about humanity so that we might join it.
- “but Maine and Texas, it may be, have nothing important to communicate.” Page 50
Really why do you need to talk to your buddies on the East coast? What will you learn from that experience that effects your life directly? Thoreau argues that you should focus on your immediate surroundings in order to truly live your life. After all, the news that you hear from the other states does not affect you. I disagree with his view on news. To me, it is important to know what is happening throughout the world so that you are better educated and those events that you see in the news may happen closer to you. By simply ignoring the news you are burying your head in the sand like an ostrich and you better hope that no points of conflict ever arise in your area of view because you won't know how to deal with them.
- "simplify simplify" page 89
Thoreau wants to get rid of all unnecessary "details," to simplify his life to the point where he can get at the truth of what living really means. He encourages his readers, whom are able, to do the same. However, later he notes that higher thinking is not for everyone, some people are just stuck being dumb. Either way simplifying ones life is essential to living a full life.
- “one piece of good sense would be more memorable than a monument as high as the moon” page 55
Thoreau believes that most people are asleep and therefore are unable to think more than how to move one foot in front of the other. This sort of shallow thinking also makes it so that common sense is not abundant so when it appears it is priceless.
- On page 58 Thoreau applies the numbers of his living.
By showing the hard numbers Thoreau appeals to his reader's logos. The evidence of how cheaply he lives will help persuade those whom money is important too.
- “Yet men have come to such a pass that they frequently starve, not for want of necessaries, but for want of luxuries.” Page 59
People are so accustomed to these unnecessary luxuries that they cannot come to fathom life without them. For example if I were to live in a thin cotton tent that many Native Americans used all their life I would often feel cold and cramped, but only because I am used to a warm log cabin. Thoreau argues that society has become spoiled with these ridiculous luxuries to a point where we are no longer self reliant. This is a major issue because if we are no longer self reliant then how can we expect to grow and awake from our deep uneducated sleep.
- “I have pitied him, not because that was his all, but because he had all that to carry” page 64
Materialistic excess, another of Thoreau's theses is represented in this quote. He argues that men are trapped and bogged down by all of their clutter. They deserve pity rather than respect for their materials.
- “for my greatest skill has been to want but little” page 67
When you think of skill it is often not a mindset, but in this case it is. Thoreau encourages all of his readers to follow in his footsteps so that material will not take over their lives. Although some men may think that their best skill is a physical trait Thoreau argues that it is rather the non-possessive sense of material.
- “The man who goes alone can start to-day” page 69
Self reliance is preached by many transcendentalists. Thoreau does not break the mold. You are only as fast as your slowest runner and in this case if you run by yourself then you can be as fast as you wish. The only problem with this mindset is that while you don't have others to hold you back you also don't have others to push you forward and challenge you.
- “There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root” page 72
Men go about things in a wrong fashion including attacking evil. They are ineffective at chopping out the whole industry so it just keeps growing back.
- “I never knew, and never shall know, a worse man than myself.” Page 74
This is an interesting thought. On the other hand of this quote Thoreau never knew anyone better than himself because you really don't know anyone else besides yourself. So if you don't know anyone besides yourself how can you truly no anyone else's motives for any of their actions.
- “Rescue the drowning and tie your shoe-strings” page 75
This is such an odd quote, but as you pull it apart you quickly understand Thoreau's meaning. "Rescue the drowning" this section clearly tells the reader to help others in dire need, but the second section emphasizes how you should not rely on others help; tie your own shoe-strings, don't be like a child and have your mother tie your shoes for you.
- "One value even of the smallest well is, that when you look into it you see that earth is not continent but insular" Page 85
He's talking about how the presence of water in the landscape, even a small amount reminds him that water always surrounds everything: that the land on earth isn't a chunk of continent but an archipelago of islands. It could be viewed as a metaphor for the precariousness of life: a reminder that his self-chosen isolation applies, in a broader sense, to everyone.
- "only one in a million is awake enough for effective intellectual exertion" page 87
Mr. Thoreau believes that being "awake" means you are emotionally, physically, and spiritually alive in a way that allows you to write, interpret everything around you, and experience everything to the fullest. People are often awake enough to commit physical exertion, but to exert the brain requires you to be fully awake. So only one in a million is awake enough to an intellect. However, unlike his neighbor Emmerson, he gives no hope or signs that more people can become awake. Thoreau believes that not everyone has the capacity to think.
- "when we are unhurried and wise, we perceive that only great and worthy things have any permanent and absolute existence.- that petty fears and petty pleasures are but the shadow of the reality. page 94
Thoreau encourages his readers to not rush life. For Thoreau, spiritual enlightenment isn't just about knowledge. It's a complete mood-changer, getting you in touch with the true pleasures in life. Thoreau claims we waste a lot of time planning for the future, instead of enjoying this very moment. We till the land, sew our clothes, fix our homes--always staying busy. However, all these little jobs are temporal, meaningless in the end. On the other hand, the poet and artist create works which will endure.
- "If the bell rings why should we run?" page 95
This quote applies to our every day life as well as back then. Except now it relates to the phone or the chime of an email. Why do we feel a relentless sense of urgency to respond? Why should our stress level climb with each new message? Rather ignore the next text message that comes in, take a breath, and ask yourself "why should I run?".
- "If the enterprise were as innocent as it is early!" page 113
- The title of Thoreau’s most important work is selfless in name. By naming the book after a pond, Walden, rather than “Thoreau’s experiment” he emphasises nature rather than humanity. This focuses on Thoreau’s theme of non conformity and honing in to the simple and important motions of life. Throughout Walden Thoreau argues that Americans spend too much of their time focusing on obtaining materialistic wealth without appreciating to the true beauty of life which can be displayed in nature. This title goes against American’s view of life thus challenging the reader to think differently and break from American conformity.
- "Society is commonly to cheap." page 131
- "but the intellectual and what is called spiritual man in him were slumbering as in an infant." page 143
- "Most men I do not meet at all for they do not have the time" page 159
- "The virtues of a superior are like the wind; the virtues of a common man are like the grass; the grass , the grass, when the wind passes over it ,bends." page 167
- "The universe is wider than our views of it:" page 309
Thoreau contradicts himself here. When he talked of news he basically employed the idea that it was right to bury your head in the sand, but here he wishes to expand his horizons and see the world. This is alright because as he stated earlier that contradicting yourself is okay because ideas change, and perhaps his finally has.
- "cowards that run away and enlist" page 312
This juxtaposition is very interesting. When you think of cowards in the army you think of those who have deserted. However, Thoreau points out how soldiers who enlist with out believing in the cause are just as cowardly as those who run away because they are going against their moral grain.
- "the surface of the earth is soft and impressible by the feet of men" page 31
People often don't realize it, but they affect their surroundings greatly. The carbon foot print is often referred to when you think of global warming. Men have changed earth for the worse in this instance but they have also improved it through many new technologies.
- "How deep the ruts of tradition and conformity!" page 313
Thoreau wanted to break free of societal expectations. He wanted to tear tradition and conformity down and find his own way. Thoreau was all about the individual forging his or her own path away from the drones of conformity and tradition. He wanted to create something new that was unique and real.
- If you have built castles in the air , your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them." page 315
This ties in with a quote Thoreau said earlier in Walden. Literally building castles in the air is impossible, just like many dreams are impossible to reach. However by applying the correct foundation one can reach the castle, and your dreams/goals as well.
- "In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness." -Conclusion
This is a summary of Thoreau's entire experiment at Walden. His summary statement: if you simplify your life, life itself will be less chaotic, and you will find happiness within yourself and recognize your strengths.
- "however mean your life is , meet it and live it." page 318
This is probably one of my favorite quotes in the entire book. In fact if someone were to read Walden and remember only one thing I would say to remember this. You should live your life to the fullest not worry about what other's have or what you don't have simply be content with it.
- "sell your clothes and keep your thoughts" page 319
Thoreau begs his readers to not worry about their personal belongings (such as clothing) but rather focus on the more important and valuable action of thinking. Do not let the cage of a house trap and kill your thoughts.
- Most have not delved six feet below the surface , nor leaped as many above it." page 322
This ties into Thoreau's thesis that most men are sleeping and unable to think. Walden pond is similar to the layers of hell. The first layer are the sleepers and the ninth layer are the intellects. Most people, like the ice shippers are on the surface merely skimming off the skin of life, but the swimmers are those that are deep in thought.
