Walking
()
About this ebook
Henry David Thoreau
Henry Thoreau was born in Concord, Massachusetts, in 1817, and attended Concord Academy and Harvard. After a short time spent as a teacher, he worked as a surveyor and a handyman, sometimes employed by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Between 1845 and 1847 Thoreau lived in a house he had made himself on Emerson's property near to Walden Pond. During this period he completed A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers and wrote the first draft of Walden, the book that is generally judged to be his masterpiece. He died of tuberculosis in 1862, and much of his writing was published posthumously.
Read more from Henry David Thoreau
The Essential Thoreau Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Existential Literature Collection Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Daily Henry David Thoreau: A Year of Quotes from the Man Who Lived in Season Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Civil Disobedience Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Enlightenment Collection Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHarvard Classics: All 71 Volumes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWalden Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCape Cod: Illustrated Edition of the American Classic Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFaith in a Seed: The Dispersion Of Seeds And Other Late Natural History Writings Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Oxford Book of American Essays Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Civil Disobedience and Other Essays (The Collected Essays of Henry David Thoreau) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Uncommon Learning: Henry David Thoreau on Education Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Essays: "This world is but a canvas to our imagination." Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLife Without Principle Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThoreau on Nature: Sage Words on Finding Harmony with the Natural World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Selections from the Journals Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWalden Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Week on the Concord and Merrimac Rivers (Barnes & Noble Digital Library) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCivil Disobedience and Other Essays Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Civil Disobedience and Other Essays Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Plea for Captain John Brown Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThoreau's Book of Quotations Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers: "Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth." Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to Walking
Related ebooks
Walking, Wild Apples Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWalking Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEssays of Henry David Thoreau - Walking Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWalking: An Essay Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Atlantic Monthly, Volume 09, No. 56, June, 1862 A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWalden, Civil Disobedience & Walking (3 Classics in One Volume): Three Most Important Works of Thoreau, Including Author's Biography Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWalden, Walking & Civil Disobedience: 3 Thoreau Classics Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Thoreau Classics: Walden, Civil Disobedience & Walking: Including Author's Biography Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWalden, Walking & Civil Disobedience (Including The Life of Henry David Thoreau) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Collected Works of Henry David Thoreau Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFireside Travels (Barnes & Noble Digital Library) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWalden Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 18, No. 108, October, 1866 A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and Politics Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLetters to Various Persons (Barnes & Noble Digital Library) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTranscendentalists Collection: Walden, Walking, Self-Reliance and Nature Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWalden: or Life in the Woods (Easy to Read Layout) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWalden and Civil Disobedience Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Walden: Life in the Woods - Reflections of the Simple Living in Natural Surroundings Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Walden (Or Life in the Woods) (Rediscovered Books): Or Life in the Woods Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Walden, Slavery in Massachusetts & Civil Disobedience Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Greatest Works of Henry David Thoreau: Walden + Civil Disobedience + Slavery in Massachusetts Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWalden by henry david thoreau Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Walden, or Life in the Woods Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Autobiography of Methuselah Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWalden (illustrated) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Illustrated Walden: or, Life in the Woods Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Philosophy For You
The Little Book of Stoicism: Timeless Wisdom to Gain Resilience, Confidence, and Calmness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Egyptian Book of the Dead: The Complete Papyrus of Ani Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Tao Te Ching: Six Translations Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Courage to Be Happy: Discover the Power of Positive Psychology and Choose Happiness Every Day Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Inward Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Questions for Deep Thinkers: 200+ of the Most Challenging Questions You (Probably) Never Thought to Ask Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Beyond Good and Evil Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Course in Miracles: Text, Workbook for Students, Manual for Teachers Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Bhagavad Gita (in English): The Authentic English Translation for Accurate and Unbiased Understanding Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of Loving Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tao Te Ching: A New English Version Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lying Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Bhagavad Gita Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Meditations: Complete and Unabridged Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Letters from a Stoic: All Three Volumes Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Beyond Good and Evil Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Buddha's Guide to Gratitude: The Life-changing Power of Everyday Mindfulness Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5History of Western Philosophy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The City of God Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Experiencing God (2021 Edition): Knowing and Doing the Will of God Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Allegory of the Cave Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lessons of History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Republic by Plato Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Walking
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Walking - Henry David Thoreau
Walking
I wish to speak a word for Nature, for absolute freedom and wildness, as contrasted with a freedom and culture merely civil—to regard man as an inhabitant, or a part and parcel of Nature, rather than a member of society. I wish to make an extreme statement, if so I may make an emphatic one, for there are enough champions of civilization: the minister and the school committee and every one of you will take care of that.
I have met with but one or two persons in the course of my life who understood the art of Walking, that is, of taking walks—who had a genius, so to speak, for SAUNTERING, which word is beautifully derived from idle people who roved about the country, in the Middle Ages, and asked charity, under pretense of going a la Sainte Terre,
to the Holy Land, till the children exclaimed, There goes a Sainte-Terrer,
a Saunterer, a Holy-Lander. They who never go to the Holy Land in their walks, as they pretend, are indeed mere idlers and vagabonds; but they who do go there are saunterers in the good sense, such as I mean. Some, however, would derive the word from sans terre without land or a home, which, therefore, in the good sense, will mean, having no particular home, but equally at home everywhere. For this is the secret of successful sauntering. He who sits still in a house all the time may be the greatest vagrant of all; but the saunterer, in the good sense, is no more vagrant than the meandering river, which is all the while sedulously seeking the shortest course to the sea. But I prefer the first, which, indeed, is the most probable derivation. For every walk is a sort of crusade, preached by some Peter the Hermit in us, to go forth and reconquer this Holy Land from the hands of the Infidels.
It is true, we are but faint-hearted crusaders, even the walkers, nowadays, who undertake no persevering, never-ending enterprises. Our expeditions are but tours, and come round again at evening to the old hearth-side from which we set out. Half the walk is but retracing our steps. We should go forth on the shortest walk, perchance, in the spirit of undying adventure, never to return—prepared to send back our embalmed hearts only as relics to our desolate kingdoms. If you are ready to leave father and mother, and brother and sister, and wife and child and friends, and never see them again—if you have paid your debts, and made your will, and settled all your affairs, and are a free man—then you are ready for a walk.
To come down to my own experience, my companion and I, for I sometimes have a companion, take pleasure in fancying ourselves knights of a new, or rather an old, order—not Equestrians or Chevaliers, not Ritters or Riders, but Walkers, a still more ancient and honorable class, I trust. The Chivalric and heroic spirit which once belonged to the Rider seems now to reside in, or perchance to have subsided into, the Walker—not the Knight, but Walker, Errant. He is a sort of fourth estate, outside of Church and State and People.
We have felt that we almost alone hereabouts practiced this noble art; though, to tell the truth, at least if their own assertions are to be received, most of my townsmen would fain walk sometimes, as I do, but they cannot. No wealth can buy the requisite leisure, freedom, and independence which are