Henry David Thoreau亨利·戴维·梭罗 生平简介、文学作品、思想特点 精华展示

"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 did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. 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, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion.” Walden, Chapter II: Where I Lived, and What I Lived For
Prof7, taught in the Concord public school, but resigned soon 1838, taught in Concord Academy, a grammar school he and his elder brother opened "I am a Schoolmaster--a Private Tutor, a Surveyor--a Gardener, a Farmer--a Painter, I mean a House Painter, a Carpenter, a Mason, a DayLaborer, a Pencil-Maker, a Glass-paper Maker, a Writer, and sometimes a Poetaster" (The Correspondence of Henry David Thoreau, ed. Walter Harding and Carl Bode [New York: New York University Press, 1958])
2. Individualism




"any man more right than his neighbors, constitutes a majority of one." Civil Disobedience practiced this view in his own life consistently encouraged others to assert their individuality, each in his or her own way independent, well-considered action arose naturally from a questing attitude of mind savoured solitude
4. Anarchism


"I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government." Civil Disobedience "'That government is best which governs not at all;' and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have." Civil Disobedience


3. Materialism



"Most of the luxuries, and many of the so called comforts of life, are not only not indispensable, but positive hinderances to the elevation of mankind." Walden, Chapter I: Economy "a man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone." Walden, Chapter II: Where I Lived and What I Lived for "simplicity, simplicity, simplicity." Walden, Chapter II: Where I Lived and What I Lived for
Further Reading

I would not have any one adopt my mode of living on any account; for, beside that before he has fairly learned it I may have found out another for myself, I desire that there may be as many different persons in the world as possible; but I would have each one be very careful to find out and pursue his own way, and not his father's or his mother's or his neighbor's instead. The youth may build or plant or sail, only let him not be hindered from doing that which he tells me he would like to do. It is by a mathematical point only that we are wise, as the sailor or the fugitive slave keeps the polestar in his eye; but that is sufficient guidance for all our life. We may not arrive at our port within a calculable period, but we would preserve the true course. Walden, Chapter I: Economy

"be a Columbus to whole new continents and worlds within you, opening new channels, not of trade, but of thought." Walden, Chapter XVIII: Conclusion,
"I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude." Walden, Chapter V: Solitude "the man who goes alone can start today; but he who travels with another must wait till that other is ready." Walden, Chapter I: Economy
Henry David Thoreau
There is more than that.
Profile

Henry David Thoreau July 12, 1817 ~May 6, 1862 Concord, Massachusetts
Education


Harvard University(1833-1837) Latin, Greek mathematics, English, history, mental&natural&intellectual philosophy, German, Spanish, French, Italian "Yes, indeed, all the branches and none of the roots" (Walter Harding, The Days of Henry Thoreau [New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1970])
Ideas


transcendentalism individualism materialism anarchism
1. Transcendentalism




opposed to the rationalist/ Unitarianism universe: the soul&nature belief in the reliability of the human conscience based upon conviction of the immanence "The only obligation which I have a right to assume, is to do at any time what I think right." Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience, 1866 "There was somewhat military in his nature, not to be subdued, always manly and able, but rarely tender, as if he did not feel himself except in opposition." Ralph Waldo Emerson, Thoreau [Eulogy, 1862]
Major Works




Resistance to Civil Government (1849) / Civil Disobedience (1866) Walden / Life in the Woods (1854)
Note:
July 4, 1845--- went to live by Walden Pond July 1846--- got imprisoned September 6, 1847--- left Walden Pond January&February 1848--- delivered lectures on "The Rights and Duties of the Individual in relation to Government" May 1849--- published Resistance to Civil Government 1854--- published Walden