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Friendship
This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1906 edition by Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., New York.
62 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2008
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85 people want to read
About the author
Henry David Thoreau
2,556 books6,817 followersHenry 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...
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...
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 21, 2025
Do you know how difficult it can be to find a friend?
I have spent countless hours, reaching out for human connection, thinking up engaging questions, only either to be completely ghosted or receive a one or two word reply in answer.
To say this is disappointing would be the understatement of the year.
Sigh. Big sigh.
And Thoreau gets this.
“To say that a man is your Friend, means commonly no more than this, that he is not your enemy.”
“What is commonly called Friendship even is only a little more than honour among rogues.”
“Perhaps there are none charitable, none disinterested, none wise, noble, and heroic enough, for a true and lasting Friendship.”
Thoreau elaborates on what makes a true friendship:
“But sometimes we are said to love another that is to stand in a true relation to him, so that we give the best to, and receive the best from him. Between whom there is hearty truth there is love; and in proportion to our truthfulness and confidence in one another, our lives are divine and miraculous, and answer to our ideal.”
The Green Light at the End of the Dock (How much I spent):
Softcover Text – Free (a gift from my true friend)
Connect With Me!
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I have spent countless hours, reaching out for human connection, thinking up engaging questions, only either to be completely ghosted or receive a one or two word reply in answer.
To say this is disappointing would be the understatement of the year.
Sigh. Big sigh.
And Thoreau gets this.
“To say that a man is your Friend, means commonly no more than this, that he is not your enemy.”
“What is commonly called Friendship even is only a little more than honour among rogues.”
“Perhaps there are none charitable, none disinterested, none wise, noble, and heroic enough, for a true and lasting Friendship.”
Thoreau elaborates on what makes a true friendship:
“But sometimes we are said to love another that is to stand in a true relation to him, so that we give the best to, and receive the best from him. Between whom there is hearty truth there is love; and in proportion to our truthfulness and confidence in one another, our lives are divine and miraculous, and answer to our ideal.”
The Green Light at the End of the Dock (How much I spent):
Softcover Text – Free (a gift from my true friend)
Connect With Me!
Blog Threads BookTube Facebook Insta My Bookstore at Pango
July 25, 2015
An inspiring and contemplative review of true friendship. Not the superficial or whimsical meaning that seems so prevalent today. No instead, Thoreau's view of friendship is a lasting, meaningful, enriching, relationship in which friends esteem and build upon the other. His view and perspective of friends, is just short of the relationship in marriage; enduring and edifying.
It is rather lofty in both style and prose, but well worth the time. I challenge young readers to take up this short prose.
It is rather lofty in both style and prose, but well worth the time. I challenge young readers to take up this short prose.
September 17, 2012
An interesting essay which jumps from prose to poetry within the same thought. I would be interested in reading this as a man as Thoreau spoke almost exclusively to the experience of male friendship, though he did mention female and male-female friendships for a brief, but incomplete, contrast.
December 25, 2014
What a beautiful little book! Such wonderful wisdom and insight from HDT. It rings true one and a half centuries later. Don't read walden, read this. It feels from the past talking about the future. For all friends
April 6, 2014
For if the truth were known, Love cannot speak,
But only thinks and does;
Though surely out 'twill leak
Without the help of Greek,
Or any tongue.
...........A beautiful ode to friendship ...
But only thinks and does;
Though surely out 'twill leak
Without the help of Greek,
Or any tongue.
...........A beautiful ode to friendship ...
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews