The Green Thoreau

by Henry David Thoreau, Carol Spenard Larusso (Editor)

Quotations from Thoreau's works reveal his love of the natural world and his desire to learn from nature

Genres: Nonfiction, Nature

96 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 1992

About the author

Henry David Thoreau (born David Henry Thoreau) was an American author, naturalist, transcendentalist, tax resister, development critic, philosopher, and abolitionist who is best known for Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay, Civil Disobedience, an argument for individual resistance to civil government in moral opposition to an unjust state.

Thoreau's books, articles, essays, journals, and poetry total over 20 volumes. Among his lasting contributions were his writings on natural history and philosophy, where he anticipated the methods and findings of ecology and environmental history, two sources of modern day environmentalism.

In 1817, Henry David Thoreau was born in Massachusetts. He graduated from Harvard University in 1837, taught briefly, then turned to writing and lecturing. Becoming a Transcendentalist and good friend of Emerson, Thoreau lived the life of simplicity he advocated in his writings. His two-year experience in a hut in Walden, on land owned by Emerson, resulted in the classic, Walden: Life in the Woods (1854). During his sojourn there, Thoreau refused to pay a poll tax in protest of slavery and the Mexican war, for which he was jailed overnight. His activist convictions were expressed in the groundbreaking On the Duty of Civil Disobedience (1849). In a diary he noted his disapproval of attempts to convert the Algonquins "from their own superstitions to new ones." In a journal he noted dryly that it is appropriate for a church to be the ugliest building in a village, "because it is the one in which human nature stoops to the lowest and is the most disgraced." (Cited by James A. Haught in 2000 Years of Disbelief.) When Parker Pillsbury sought to talk about religion with Thoreau as he was dying from tuberculosis, Thoreau replied: "One world at a time."

Thoreau's philosophy of nonviolent resistance influenced the political thoughts and actions of such later figures as Leo Tolstoy, Mohandas K. Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, Jr. D. 1862.

More: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/tho...

http://thoreau.eserver.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Da...

http://transcendentalism-legacy.tamu....

http://www.biography.com/people/henry...

Reviews

[Maggie Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoreau is my new favorite author! This collection was incredible and I devoured it all within a day. I can't wait to track down copies of his complete essays and other works! I learned so much from this one and his naturalistic and minimalistic message really resonated with me.

[Bobby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Since this is my introduction to Thoreau, I am in no position to speak to how well these ninety-some-odd pages represent his writings. This is a collection of quotes from throughout his writings and even in this form his prescience is amazing. And the short quotes make this a sort of Thoreau devotional - in fact, that's pretty much how I read this, in short little bursts mostly in the morning just after rising! I'd recommend this book to anyone who would like a small introduction to this legendary thinker.

[Bristol · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a both entertaining and moving collection of Thoreau quotes, from different novels and essays about different topics, separated into different categories.

Thoreau is always relevant, especially his comments on nature, and environmentalism. He's lasted long past his time because of his very in-depth, and ahead of his time comments.

While the collection is short, it's important. It's still important. 4 1/2 out of 5

[Nathaniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fascinating collection of excerpts. There was a lot of good spoken in these pages. I might have to read some of the full works now.