«Avevo tre sedie, in casa mia: una per la solitudine, due per l’amicizia, tre per la compagnia». Un classico finalmente letto. Seguire Thoreau sul lago di Walden offre l’opportunità di confrontarsi con un’inattuale attitudine ai temi dell’economia e della sussistenza di base, del rapporto con la natura, della dimensione individuale e sociale del nostro vivere. Non solo una critica della società dell’epoca; soprattutto, un viaggio di auto-conoscenza.
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I started reading "Walden Pond" at about the same time as the Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder, and was struck by the extreme contrast of the pioneer ethos with Thoreau's meandering jeremiad and rather whining self-important pride at living a whole mile away from the nearest neighbor (a 15-minute walk at most for any able-bodied person), when the Ingalls and their compatriots routinely settled 2 to 10 miles from anyone else, if not substantially more, often being totally cut off in the winter.
Somewhat like Thoreau, the Ingalls family is torn between the benefits of community and the pleasures of solitary home-steading, but they are actually roughing it, unlike the philosophe, who was supported by his friends and didn't lack for company IIRC.
Wilder does a better job of contrasting the pros and cons of "civilized" settlements versus singular homesteads in the context of her fictionalized memoir.

I had never before read Walden & Civil Disobedience in their entirety. Walden is something of a slog and slow to get going, but I enjoyed the rapturous way he writes about nature. It's easy to see why this is a classic for those passages alone. Civil Disobedience is more engaging than the social commentary within Walden, and quite fascinating in light of how it continues to influence activism today. I'm glad I read these works but I won't ever willingly read through them again. ( )

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately…”

I am reading this at Scout Camp in the Sierra Mountains. We are in Emigrant Gap in California, at an elevation of 5,389 feet, and Chubb Lake is standing in for Walden Pond. And it’s 2022, not 1845. It was a bit dry, but extremely impactful! And I was in the perfect setting to absorb it! I loved so many quotes in the book and wrote down my most favorites below. After finishing the book, I really believe it should be a requirement for everyone on planet Earth to read. That's how important I think it is.

“The evil that men do lives after them.”

“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.”
“Birds do not sing in caves…”
“But lo! men have become the tools of their tools.”
“There is no odor so bad as that which arises from goodness tainted.”
“There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root…”
“Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in.”
“How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book!”
“…but nothing can deter a poet, for he is actuated by love.”
“Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.”
“Enjoy the land, but own it not.”
“We should be blessed if we lived in the present always, and took advantage of every accident that befell us, like the grass which confesses the influence of the slightest dew that falls on it; and did not spend our time in atoning for the neglect of past opportunities, which we call doing our duty. We loiter in winter while it is already spring.”
“Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.”
“We can never have enough of nature.”
“…if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”
“The faultfinder will find faults even in paradise.”
“Patriotism is a maggot in their heads.”

“For my part, I could easily do without the post office.” - (this is a particular favorite of mine, as I am a USPS letter carrier!) ( )

Sparked by Thoreau’s outrage at American slavery and the American-Mexican war, Civil Disobedience is a call for every citizen to value his conscience above his government. Within this 19th century essay, Thoreau explains government of any sort – including democracy – does not possess more wisdom or justice than its individual citizens, and that it is every citizen’s responsibility to avoid acquiescence. More than an essay, Civil Disobedience is a call to action for all citizens to refuse to participate in, or encourage in any way, an unjust institution.

FROM AMAZON: Henry David Thoreau’s Walden details his experiences over the course of two years, two months, and two days in a cabin he built near Walden Pond amidst woodland owned by his friend and mentor Ralph Waldo Emerson, near Concord, Massachusetts. “Civil Disobedience” is a highly influential argument for disobedience to an unjust state. Both Walden and “Civil Disobedience” are timeless classics of American literature. This Warbler Classics edition includes an introduction by Charles R. Anderson and a detailed chronology of Thoreau’s life and work.

Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) was an American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher. He is best known for his book Walden and his essay “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience” (originally published as “Resistance to Civil Government”). Thoreau was a lifelong abolitionist, delivering lectures that attacked the fugitive slave law while praising the writings of Wendell Phillips and defending the abolitionist John Brown. Thoreau’s philosophy of civil disobedience later influenced the political thoughts and actions of such notable figures as Leo Tolstoy, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Jr. His writings on natural history and philosophy anticipated modern-day environmentalism. ( )