Reflection of excerpt from Henry David Thoreau's Walden

While reading the excerpt of Henry David Thoreau’s “Walden,” I was impressed with Thoreau’s thoughts that in order to live life to the fullest, life needs to be lived simply. Thoreau talks of how he moved to the forest to “see if I could learn what [nature] had to teach , and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived” (376). The transcendentalist author believes man’s society can learn a great deal from the simplicity of nature.

Thoreau believes man can learn much from nature’s unadorned ways which contrast dramatically with man’s complicated civilization. He argues that “An honest man has hardly need to count more than ten fingers, or in extreme cases he may add his ten toes and lump the rest. Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity (376)! Thoreau sees no need for the intricate details of life. By giving an example of his journey in the woods in search for a more simplistic, “Spartan” lifestyle, Thoreau is arguing the simple life is the better life.

While reading Where I Lived and What I lived For, I was impressed also with Thoreau’s statement that “ The surface of the earth is soft and impressionable by the feet of men; and so with the paths that the mind travels” (377). Henry David Thoreau believes every aspect of life should be lived fully and void of unnecessary clutter. If a minimalist life is lived, man has lived the “life where the bone is sweetest” (378).