A review by ayla_derammelaere
Walden en De plicht tot burgerlijke ongehoorzaamheid by Paolo Cognetti, Henry David Thoreau

challenging inspiring reflective slow-paced

3.0



When I started reading 'Walden', I was very enthusiastic. I had heard a lot of good things and I was curious to get to know (the way of the thinking of) Thoreau.
After a few pages, I already knew this wasn't a way of writing that really intrigues me : Thoreau can give beautiful descriptions of the nature where he lived, pictures the pond as a personality, writes about the animals as if they were his friends, .. but none of it felt really lived through (for me).


'Walden' was written after Thoreau moved back to the city of Concorde. He had lived a little over 2 years in a little cabin at Walden, near the pond. He was still young when he did this ; I had imagined him to be an older man who had enough of the hypocrisy of life in a city. When you read the book, he sounds like someone who has all the answers while he 'only' lived there for 2 years and he knew all the time, he could go back to the city whenever he wanted and could end his self-chosen poverty.


Thoreau looks down on almost everyone : he wants us to realize that you don't need a lot of possessions or money to be able to live (read : survive). People nowadays cling to much to money so all they do is work to get more possessions and more money but it also makes us crave even more so we're stuck in the circle of working more to get more to work more to..
I think it's an easy way of thinking when you know you won't need to live like this for the rest of your life, when you don't need to worry about what will happen when you get sick or too old to work.


The book 'Walden' was combined with his work 'the duty of civil disobedience'. This work I just loved : it is written very passionately, he puts a clear description of why he thinks what he thinks and asks you what you can do to make the society we live in, a better one.


But, end this is a big but, even though I don't seem to like him as a person, he does write a lot of beautiful quotes that makes me think about (our way of) life.

I'll write all of my favorite quotes down here, they are translated out of Dutch so I hope I won't miss the nuances in translation.


I went into the woods to live a conscience life, so I could focus only on essentials and investigate if I wouldn't be able to learn what life is trying to teach me, so that when I am on my deathbed, I don't have to discover I hadn't lived yet.

I wouldn't have talked as much about myself if there would have been someone else I know just as good. Sadly, I need to limit myself to this subject due to my lack of experience.

Who had made them slaves to the soil ? Why are they forced to eat 50 acres when man is convicted to only eat a few ponds of dirt ?

Always promising to pay tomorrow while we're dying today without being able to pay.

What someone thinks of himself, is what defines his destiny, or rather, points in its direction.

Most of the luxury in life, and a lot its comfort, isn't just not indispensable but even a type of obstacle that stands in the way of the upliftment of humanity.

We only know few men but lots of coats and pants. (Thoreau points out our priorities are wrong : we think we know the worth of someone by looking at their clothes and how they portrait themselves instead of looking at what actions they perform and what is important in life.)

Men have become the tools of their tools. (Thoreau let us know that in the beginning, we acted so we could meet our basic needs, once those were met we could enjoy all that nature has to offer. Now, we are 'forced' to work more and more, to harvest more and more ; not for our needs but to purchase luxury. We have forgotten to live in the now and enjoy now ; we work ourselves to our deaths, without pleasure, so that we can enjoy it all later.)

One could even claim that both the prophets and the saviors are more at ease to comfort man in his fears than to enhance his hope.

Let us life one day just as determined as Nature and not derail by every nutshell or fly wing that falls on the rails.

In my home, I had 3 chairs : 1 for solitude, 2 for friendship and 3 for company.

Only when we're lost, in other words, only when we lose the world, we try to find ourselves and realize where we are and how endlessly far-reaching everything we deal with is.

How can you expect the birds to sing when you cut down their trees ?

Be like Columbus and discover new continents and worlds within yourself, open new channels, not for trade but for reflecting.

Some people keep telling us that we, Americans, modern humans in general are intellectual dwarves compared to humans from Ancient Times, or even the age of Elizabeth. But what does it matter ? A living dog is better than a death lion. Must someone kill himself only because he is a Pygmy or should he try to become the biggest Pygmy possible ?

You don't need money to buy what the soul needs.

Is there not a government in which good and bad are not decided by majorities but by conscience ?

I think that we should be humans before we are subjects.

The law has never made people one bit more just ; and even good-inclined men, by their reverence for the law, are daily made instruments of injustice.

I myself, can not acknowledge any political organization as the government when this is also a government of slaves.

The best thing someone can do for their culture when they are rich, is try to execute the plans he made when he was poor.

There will never be a truly free and enlightened State until the State recognizes the individual as a higher, independent power from which he derives all his power and authority and treats him as such.