Thoreau's simple life at Walden
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ก.ค. 2024
- Henry David Thoreau sought the simple life in 1845 when he moved to the woods outside Boston to live on Walden Pond.
"In wildness is the preservation of the world," wrote Henry David Thoreau in 1851 at a time when he was one of the few thinking about environmental conservation. Six years previous he had embarked on a now-famous experiment in simple living. He'd gone to the woods outside Boston to live in a 150-square-foot cabin to avoid living "what was not life".
"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."
He spent two years, two months and two days in his cabin at Walden Pond and in 1854, he published his reflections on life in the woods in the book Walden. The book is credited with helping to inspire environmental awareness, but his messages were often simple: "Our life is frittered away by detail... Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity!"
Today, his life, and work, are an inspiration for followers of downshifting and simplicity movements, but due to his detailed observations of the natural world during his days at Walden, his work is now being used to help modern scientists study climate change.
When he died in 1862, the industrial revolution was just beginning to pump greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. His recordings of when and where plants flowered in the area is now being studied to show patterns of climate change.
Conservation biologists reported in 2008 - based on Thoreau's research- that common species are flowering 7 days earlier than they did during his day and 27% of the species he studied have disappeared (another 36% are endangered).
In this video, Michael Mitchell of the Walden Pond State Reservation gives us a tour of the site of Thoreau's original cabin and talks about his life in the woods.
Original story here: faircompanies.com/videos/view/...
Along with Emerson and Whitman, this guy is the writer/philosopher/poet most in accord with my own weltanschuuang. All three are gloriously quotable. Here’s my top ten from Thoreau, in no particular order:
1. *The question is not what you look at, but what you see.*
2. *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.*
3. *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 love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude.*
4. *You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island of opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land; there is no other life but this.*
5. *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 he hears, however measured or far away.*
6. *Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify.*
7. *I would rather sit on a pumpkin, and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion.*
8. *The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked me what I thought, and attended to my answer.*
9. *Things do not change; we change.*
10. *A man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone.*
Like stars in the firmament, there are countless others, he is that quotable. Perhaps after all, this is my all-time favourite: *I say, beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes.* 🥸
I truly admire this man.
Thoreau-ly enjoyed this video
most underrated comment
Thoreau did not move to walden to escape society. He would often go visit friends and family. He did it to live 2 years under "Transcendentalist principles" where he put his and Emersons ideas to the test.
Friendly Yog-Sothoth 😂🤦♂️
@@Oldsmobile69 in his socks
Emerson was just a talker and theorist; Thoreau was a do'er. He was utterly genuine
"I left the woods for as good a reason as I went there. Perhaps it seemed to me that I had several more lives to live, and could not spare any more time for that one. It is remarkable how easily and insensibly we fall into a particular route, and make a beaten track for ourselves. I had not lived there a week before my feet wore a path from my door to the pond-side; and though it is five or six years since I trod it, it is still quite distinct. It is true, I fear, that others may have fallen into it, and so helped to keep it open. The surface of the earth is soft and impressible by the feet of men; and so with the paths which the mind travels. How worn and dusty, then, must be the highways of the world, how deep the ruts of tradition and conformity! I did not wish to take a cabin passage, but rather to go before the mast and on the deck of the world, for there I could best see the moonlight amid the mountains. I do not wish to go below now." interesting to see these people following his story, to which his whole point was not to follow anyone. Not even Him
valid. but, people follow the principles and ideas he forged and not necessarily followed his path. even Christopher McCandless studied Thoreau and reveled in his ideas to the point of eliminating materialism from daily life and venturing to Alaska to live simply like Thoreau suggests. McCandless has his unique path heavily influenced by Thoreau.
on another note, even though this comment is a year after your post, did you mention to capitalize 'Him' at the end. if so, that is sort of clever to compare Thoreau to a god by using capitalization
thank you for that beautiful, awe-inspiring quote. I often forget about his famous quoted reason for leaving the pond, putting too much focus on the powerful, achingly beautiful quote about his reason for going TO Walden in the first place. Because he didn't want to come to find, when he died, that he had never truly lived. It has some kind of spell, his words! I swear, he is not a man, he is a Divine Being
I picked up "Walden" at Goodwill yesterday and started reading it. How relevant it is even to this day. I love his use of words- calling pants 'pantalones' in Spanish it's the same, 'pantalones.' His brilliant mind covers even the small things. I'm left speechless and want to visit Walden Pond someday.
gracias, gracias, gracias!
reading walden now :)
I read Walden 12 years before,it's amazing biography that I have ever seen, I have read many times but it gives always a joy, rip Thoreau
The most brilliant light this nation has ever produced.
as if this nation is full of idiots. ... perhaps you have some grounds for thinking that way, considering this nation is based on man being free to do whatever he wants - and men are damn crazy and stupid.
Been there, have picture with me standing next to Thoreau statue. Cool guy, way ahead of his time. Love Walden and The Maine Woods. My favorite two books.
i like how you made it about you - while boiling him down to being "a cool dude" lol
@@cormorant_on_arock7934 My apologies, just shared my experience.
landlords would try to lease an apartment that looks like that inside for $1500 a month and call it a "minimalist studio"
Lol but you’ve gotta give ‘em kudos for creative marketing
Maybe I got out.of the wrong side of the bed this morning, but "compartmentalizing" Henry David Thoreau is one of the attitudes this philosopher "went to the woods" to get away from. There is Thoreau the Environmentalist, Thoreau the political radical, author of Civil Disobedience; Thoreau the anti-social misanthropist; Thoreau the Nature nut and tree hugger. These impressions are NOT what I get out of Walden everytime I read it. He had no axe to grind and he wasn't trying to "convince" anybody of anything. First, those new to Walden are often surprised by how funny it is. So many common expressions we pull from it: March to a different drummer; did not want to come to the end of my life discovering I had not lived; most men lead lives of quiet desperation; better a live dog than a dead lion. Thoreau could have been the poster boy for the saying "less is more." Thoreau probably qualifies as our only original philosopher. I doubt anybody I can think of would agree with everything Thoreau writes in Walden. But from the Far Left to the Far Right, I have a a strong belief that anyone who READS the whole book-it will change some part of their outlook on life. How much do we really need? Do we take our ability to read and write we learn in compulsory schooling- do we DO anything with that literacy? Or do we read "junk" books as well as eat "junk" food. Do we read anything that might require, as Thoreau writes, to stand on tip-toe? Finally, if Thoreau we're alive today, he might go further than Walden Pond in Concord- he might go to the Arctic Circle in protest- if he were living in a world that dumped all the Ancient writers he so loved: Homer, Aeschylus, Plato, etc. From school curriculum has "having nothing to say to today's world." He would counter-- If these books have survived relatively intact for thousands of years- requiring constant re-writing.over the centuries, as the printing press only came into use around 1450. The problem isn't these banished books. The problem is Us.
@MotherLodeBeth That's a great point. We've definitely grown our average home size in the U.S. Though I think Thoreau was different from his peers who- like his good friend Ralph Waldo Emerson- were living in nearby Concord, MA in very large homes.
The woods are lovely,dark and deep
But I have promises to keep
And miles to go before I sleep
And miles to go before I sleep . Frost
Wow, one of the earliest faircompanies videos! Love the content, even years later. Congrats!
He had a strong influence on John Muir.
God bless
Thoreau was a real badass. 👍
I've been following this channel for 10 years now! I'm really happy with how it grow, but I can believe from the millions of views of comments this particular video has so little!
This is so refreshing to know
This was surprisingly well done. Good work! Loved reading Walden, very inspirational.
Great video. Thanks for posting!
Like the rest of us Thoreau was the product of, even victim of evolving human society. Some shine brighter than others, but all belong of the same fabric. Let's not forget that Native cultures have lived in appreciation and respect with their surroundings long before Thoreau came around, but we credit him more because he emerged from and is one of us.
Well done!
Reading Walden now!
Wow Amazing 😍🤩😮 beautiful
Too bad the original building could not have been saved/maintained, wouldn't that be something! No matter how they choose to pronounce his name, there is no mistaking that we are all talking about the same man, a very wonderful and enlightened man.
Yesss...if the original building could have been saved ..it would have been on the top of my Travel Bucket List ♥
I wish i could live in a cottage like his...
@@madhumishra4776 You can.
Actually a majority of people in his time lived in small places like this. Even in the 1800's in South Dakota (Little House on the Prarie) and the cabin here in the Sierras where Mark Twain lived in the 1800's, were the same size and style. Come west and you will still find small house society folks.
Simple is the best.
Love Thoreau and Walden.
On another note, it absolutely irks me when people say "would have been" rather than simply saying was.
Ó Slattarra it has entirely different connotations
@@deekang6244 So none of that was there?
Was is not would have been in all usages.
Not very well known,but he had a kick ass checkers gaming system at the cabin.
That is hilarious, bro was a core gamer
Please review the Glenn Murcutt's work in Australia, because in his work was strongly influenced by Thoreau's thoughts
2 years 2 months, and 2 days then he got into a rut. Some of us work the same job for 40 years
we journeyed to Walden Pond from Pennsylvania; paid 15 dollars to park only to be told that it's a Massachusetts state law than no pets can be on State property! they didn't want to refund my money until I said that I wasn't told about the pet policy! I offered to let my wife go to the pond while I watched the dog only to be told about no pets on State grounds. Pennsylvania is screwed up but it's my home and I love it and at least we don't have such stupid rules! and don't rip folks to park; our parks always have about half out of state cars so that ought to tell you something.
It seems that the state of Massachusetts is actually the type of entity that Thoreau was trying to get away from.
Thoreau must be rolling in his grave.
It’s crazy how In todays world it’s not possible to live a life like how he wanted to now it’s hard to escape from everything and move into a cabin in the woods
The way is to buy a van and book a camp site in a national park - that way you can keep moving to new and different woods, and keep being in silent nature all the time without getting bored of the scenery.
Part of the reason he went was due to his brother's recent death from tetanus. Walden was part of his healing process.
Try building a cabin without a permit today and see what the state does.
TH-cam just recommended me a 15-year-old Thoreauvian video.
Watching this because my history teacher told me to. Pretty cool dude lmao ngl.
It's now $1200/month with first, last, and safety deposit.
I have long admired Thoreau's writings and I think it's superior to similar writings, like "The Outermost house," which came to be for essentially the same reason. His writings, for something written that long ago, could have been written today in its wording. But Thoreau only lived to be 44, never married or had children. So, at 75, there is a gap between our existences.
I wonder if it is even possible to live in a cabin that you built yourself like that today with all the codes and regulations that exist.
Where I live, you can build whatever you damn well like on your own land. In the city, you can't build a tool shed without a permit and paying for an inspection and anything else the government can think of to make you pay them more money. It's really ridiculous.
Terri smith. Where do you live?
Why no one had make a movie about him
Someone else who did alot for the wild places in this country is President Theodore Roosevelt.
" Bully!"
My nickname 월든 means walden
Only here for my homework.
now thoreau is very actual, current (i dont know how in english you say)
Ikr it bothered me too
Whats with the barbed wire fence along the trail?
Erosion and foot traffic control.
Thanks.
I don't think the host has read Walden
May I ask you what makes you think that way? Exactly what in the hosts narration do you think are in conflict with the book?
I know, right? I totally agree.
Henry was anti-taxes and anti-war. But the authorities caught up to him and put him in jail twice! Once for non payment of taxes and once for not going to war. Since he couldn't escape tyranny, he left Walden's pond after two years. I suppose if his strategy had worked, he would've lived there for life. He supported himself by growing and selling beans. He wasn't a conservationist, he just hated the system! The same banker-oligarchs that still send our men (now women) off to fight their wars and make wage-slaves of us all. Then as now, all wars are banker's wars. And our taxes are in the same vain. Read chapter one - Henry thought it was unreasonable to mortgage your personal freedom for 10 years to an employer to pay off a house mortgage. Indians (yes, he said Indians) lived in wigwams - no mortgage, but bankers convinced european peoples that that wasn't 'civilized.' I wonder what he would say to any educated man, or woman, who would willingly sign a 30 Year Mortgage! Bankers come up with traps, educated men & women are supposed to use their brains to get out of these traps and/or to avoid them altogether. We haven't been doing such a good job, have we?
@MM M it doesn't really matter if you're paying rent or a mortgage, so don't feel so bad about that - you will ALWAYS pay no matter what. you will NEVER own your property in this great country of ours. you are ALWAYS renting - either from an individual, or a bank, or the government. heck, if it wasn't for the kindness of Thoreau's friend in letting him stay there, he also wouldn't have been able to do what he did. freedom in this beautiful country of ours is a facade.... we are unfortunate slaves to the state, and don't you forget that. want to add a little studio to your own house? you better pay the MAN and follow his rules, or you're out.
No wild animal confronted him because he was invading their space and habitat?
Anyone else here for history HW?
Here for my homework
video quality from 2009...
tiny house
so? 1 man builds a 1-room cottage in the bush-and the world is 'amazed' by it? IT SHOULD BE EVERY MAN thats feels the suns rays
@Anthony Mark of course..the point being that the way he thought WE ALL SHOULD BE THINKING
he wrote a book
We are a world of consumers. We do nothing but consume. Movies aren't even artistic anymore, much less notable. Our food is almost entirely GMO. Our cars will totally destruct in a 25mph crash, our "durable goods (merchandise meant to last a lifetime) are falling apart in 5 yrs. or less. They build in obsolesce to force us to buy more & more often. 99% of people would go NUTS living like Thoreau did. No internet, no cellphone, no computer games, no social media, not text or emails. It would be a literal prison to them. We don't think, we consume. We don't reflect, we consume. We don't pray because Bill Gates, Geo. Clooney, Matt Damon & Britney are our gods. We have not forgotten how to relax like this, we have never known HOW to begin with!
And the world is turning into walden II
Why does he say "THOR-O" like "Zorro?" I've genuinely never heard anyone pronounce it that way.
Accounts differ but there's a general consensus that in his own lifetime HDT's surname was pronounced THUrroh, with the emphasis on the first syllable. (Think 'swallow'). ThurrOH (this time think 'ago') is more commonly heard but came later.
guess it would be easy to live 'simply' if one did not have to work to pay for the land his home sat on. There is a growing sense that Thoreau was lazy in life pursuits.
Dennis M Have you ever watched a mama bird build a nest to feed her young relentlessly? And she does not pay for the tree nor twigs. She has no license to hunt for worms and insects to feed her hungry youths. Man alone seems to look down upon the true work of living and has in higher esteem the very servitude Thoreau wished to avoid. The colonizers and even quite recent descendants of them called the Americans Natives “dirty and lazy.”
It is nature’s way among animals, plants and non-organic substances to conserve energy. Thoreau was a philosopher who asked no one to agree with him. It does seem a bit lazy and selfish, and yet maybe that’s missing the point of understanding Thoreau. The earth and its inhabitants would be much stronger and healthier living according to his philosophy. Alas, it is not the business of poets to be the most practical people, but show us ways and ideas we might not have considered.
@@mantykarhu this is beautifully written.
@@dallasheadings9111 yes it was
As a descendent of Europeans who mostly stayed in Europe even through difficult times I find it ironic that someone like Thoreau and modern romantics of a country that shamelessly appropriated land from native American indians who never thought of natural beauty as something that could be bought for one's own private use and exploitation now ponder the stupidity of selfish materialism when that is the very ethos of their country.
Stop, you are making me cry.
Trace your roots back far enough and I bet you'll find ancestors who moved onto someone else's land and exploited their resources so why don't you fuck off with your self righteous European elitist mindset.
So, because we're descendants of people who shamelessly appropriated other people's land we somehow shouldn't be allowed to ponder the stupidity of our descendants actions and live in a way we feel is in accordance with what we truly believe in?
Sondagsmusic, Goddamn right. Who do you think you are to question your forebears? You should be out there stealing from indigenous peoples and rabble rousing about taxes like they did, you uppity do-gooder. Get off your ass and go exploit someone like a respectable member of society.
Micah Detwiler well played either way. But my comment was meant as a reply to the euro-elitist
Thoreau's simple life wouldn't have been quite so possible without women who cooked food for him, came and picked up his clothing and laundered it for him... people worked while he lived his "simple life."'
Don’t worry darling, you are appreciated and we men find you women quite captivating.
You are hereby acknowledged for your vast contributions. Now let us return to the life and work of Thoreau...
1 pixel camera
Does it bother anyone else that he's pronouncing his name "Thorough"? I cringed every time!! 😁
That's how it's pronounced...
Yep. William Howarth's "Book of Concord" verifies that Thoreau himself would have pronounced it this way. Most people say "Tho-ROW" now, which is fine, but don't pick on the guy for saying it the proper, historical way...
Think you're missing the point, it's not about our titles and pronunciation of names, it's about who we truly are as an individual.
I was taught in high school 50 years ago to pronounce his name to rhyme with furrow, just the way this man is saying it.
Hang on, that is not correct.
U don't need much to live well
Thank you for not mispronouncing his name.
I've never heard it pronounced that way from anyone - not even those in literary circles, and they're the most pretentious people on earth!
SO FUCKING HIGH!!!!!
😂
No, friend. No, it's not. If I must educate you, it's pronounced thuh-ROW. You're welcome.
With Onions I’m still trying to pronounce “ ROUSSEAU .”
While we're at it, it's Levi-O-sa not Levio-SA
I'm so glad TH-cam was invented so my teacher could assign videos to ruin my recommend feed also... @justin.Y wya
Peeping Tom
he gives a very poor presentation...uz...hmmmm.need some one more suitable for guide,as he does not speak or pronounce Thoreau correctly.Nice man,wrong role.
This was before tick-borne diseases
He need to hound for food cut fire wood cook his own meal lot of work
He want to be alone with his lover in those days wasn’t aloud to be gay
That only my opinion sorry if I ofend you!
Kind of thought that too , hopefully he wasn’t a gaybo
@@joeantolak4629Why hopefully?
@@stevepayne5965 because that would be gay
@joeantolak4629 Or rather, you mean he would have been.
As it is there's zero record that Thoreau ever had any kind of romantic or sexual relationship with with anybody at all, ever.
Not that it matters.
@@stevepayne5965 honestly i was looking for an excuse to use gaybo in a sentence
The cabin is a total sham, and Walden one of the most disappointing places ever.
😂😂
😂