What did Thoreau think people should do about unjust laws?
Thoreau declared that if the government required people to participate in injustice by obeying “unjust laws,” then people should “break the laws” even if they ended up in prison. “Under a government which imprisons any unjustly,” he asserted, “the true place for a just man is also a prison.”
How does civil disobedience show the highest respect for the law?
“An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law” – Martin Luther King, Jr.
What is Thoreau’s opinion of majority rule?
1. According to Thoreau, what is the basis of majority rule? He contends that majority rule is not based on justice or fairness but rather on nothing more than the fact that the majority is physically stronger than the minority.
Would Thoreau believe that the people should work for the government or that the government should work for the people?
In Thoreau’s opinion the government should be for the use of working towards the human conscience. He believed that the government system steals the right to an individual life and personal experience.
What according to Thoreau is the best government?
The phrase “that government is best which governs least” is often credited to Henry David Thoreau, in his 1849 “Civil Disobedience,” or “Resistance to Civil Government.” (It’s also sometimes credited to Thomas Jefferson or John Locke, but although it might capture well some of their thinking, to my knowledge it doesn’t …
What does Thoreau mean by a better government?
Thoreau believes that a better government is one in which “majorities do not virtually decide right and wrong, but conscience” (part 1, par. For Thoreau, the individual and his/her conscience are more important in deciding right and wrong than the will of the majority.
What are Thoreau’s main ideas?
Thoreau emphasized self-reliance, individuality, and anti-materialism and sharply questioned the basic assumptions of the way men lived. Transcendentalism proved to be the intellectual force that charged Thoreau’s imagination to write about the possibilities of an ideal existence for man.
How does Thoreau define a good citizen?
According to Thoreau in “Civil Disobedience,” a good citizen is one who serves the state with his conscience, doing what he believes to be right for the public good. Soldiers serve the state with their bodies, and legislators serve the state with their minds, but these people usually do only part of their duty.
How does Thoreau describe time?
We make time and spend it, we waste it and lose it and buy it and kill it. We are never on time, seldom in time, and always of time. How we perceive time determines how we live. In Walden, Henry David Thoreau writes “Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in.
What does Thoreau mean by simple life?
Simple is the way of life that transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau advocated as the most fulfilling of all. Living in and around a small cabin, Thoreau realizes that when one is with nature and nature alone, he sees life as immeasurable and unlimited in its…show more content…
Why does Thoreau go to live in the woods?
Thoreau moved to the woods of Walden Pond to learn to live deliberately. I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.
What advice does Thoreau offer?
what advice does thoreau offer to his ”fellows” about ownership of land or property? he advises his fellows to live free and uncommitted. You just studied 20 terms!
What did Thoreau learn from his experience in the woods?
What did Thoreau learn from his experiment in the woods? that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagines, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.
What advice does Thoreau give to those living in property?
What advice does Thoreau offer his “fellows” about ownership of land and property? He tells them to avoid the commitments of ownership.
Why did Thoreau choose to live alone at two and a half years?
Thoreau moved to the woods of Walden Pond to learn to live deliberately. He desired to learn what life had to teach him. He moved to the woods to experience a purposeful life. While living in the woods, Thoreau desired to simplify his life.
What are the four necessities of life according to Thoreau?
Thoreau identifies only four necessities: food, shelter, clothing, and fuel. Since nature itself does much to provide these, a person willing to accept the basic gifts of nature can live off the land with minimal toil.
Is Thoreau’s cabin still standing?
While Thoreau’s cabin was deconstructed shortly after Thoreau left Walden, its image still exists today. A number of replicas have been created near Walden Pond including one at the Thoreau Institute. The site of Thoreau’s cabin may be accessed through the Pond Path at the Walden Pond State Reservation.
Why did Thoreau write about his life?
According to the second paragraph in “Economy,” why has Thoreau decided to write about his life? He wants to give “a simple and sincere amount” of himself; he knows himself best. Thoreau’s metaphors are highly visual.
What does Thoreau mean when he says Simplify Simplify?
What does Thoreau mean by “Simplify, Simplify” ? Thoreau feels that busyness and clutter stop people from deliberating (thinking.)
What is the purpose of Walden?
Walden is viewed not only as a philosophical treatise on labour, leisure, self-reliance, and individualism but also as an influential piece of nature writing. It is considered Thoreau’s masterwork.
What is Thoreau’s primary purpose in Walden?
What is Thoreau’s primary purpose in Walden? He is trying to persuade readers to live a simple life.
How is Thoreau a transcendentalist?
During his time living on Walden Pond, Thoreau wanted to demonstrate that a man could live well by working hard for one day each week, leaving the rest of his time free to devote to writing, thinking, and contemplating nature. To a transcendentalist, this self-reliant, thoughtful lifestyle was ideal.
What is a life of quiet desperation?
The Desperate Treadmill of Desire. Thoreau’s famous quote — “The mass of men live lives of quiet desperation” — is most frequently used as a reason for following one’s passion and achieving a life which avoids the mediocrity of playing it small and attains to extra-ordinary success.
Why does Thoreau insist that people need to simplify their lives?
Thoreau believed that lives lived in civilisation resulted in unnecessary complexity. To truly live simply and to live in harmony with our surroundings it is necessary to do what he did, which was to go into nature and live secluded from other humans and civilisation.
How does Thoreau feel about being alone?
In fact, Thoreau argues, it is solitude, not society, which prevents loneliness. Even in solitude, one is connected to all things. Thoreau believes that people are distracted by being polite and that they spend too much time around each other, which actually makes them respect each other less.
What did Thoreau say?
“It reads: I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” Thoreau died from tuberculosis in 1862.
What kind of life does Thoreau want to live?
deliberately
WHO SAID lives of quiet desperation?
Henry David Thoreau
What did Thoreau eat?
Some argue Thoreau was never a strict vegetarian, although accounts are that he was mostly vegetarian later in life. At Walden, he ate lots of rice, beans which he grew himself, and produce like potatoes, peas, corn, and turnips.
How would you explain Thoreau’s reasons for leaving Walden Pond?
Thoreau remarks that his reasons for leaving Walden Pond are as good as his reasons for going: he has other lives to live, and has changes to experience. Thoreau reflects that we humans do not know where we are and that we are asleep half the time.