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 humour 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)
OTHER INTERESTING QUOTES
"But men labor under a mistake" (Page 3)
"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)
"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)
"thus have forged their own golden or silver fetters" (Page 16)
This quote comes from "Walden"'s introduction. Thoreau is directly addressing his audience, and using humour 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 tat's what they do, even if they don't necessarily believe in it.
OTHER INTERESTING QUOTES
"but I could never see that these men slew or captured any monster or finished any labor" (Page 3)
"But men labor under a mistake" (Page 3)
"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)
"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)
"thus have forged their own golden or silver fetters" (Page 16)
This is a decent start.
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