Walden - Thoreau

1. Thoreau Versus the
Modern World: The
Ultimate Conflict of
Influences
By Sabrina Shepherd

2. Unnecessary Influences: Insincerity
 “I, on my side, require of every
writer, first or last, a simple and
sincere account of his own life,
and not merely what he has
heard of other men's lives;
some such account as he
would send to his kindred from
a distant land; for if he has lived
sincerely, it must have been in
a distant land to me.”

3. Necessary Influences: Sincerity
 “I, on my side, require of
every writer, first or last, a
simple and sincere account
of his own life, and not
merely what he has heard
of other men's lives; some
such account as he would
send to his kindred from a
distant land; for if he has
lived sincerely, it must have
been in a distant land to
me.”

4. Unnecessary Influences: Rigidity
 “Society is commonly too cheap. We
meet at very short intervals, not
having had time to acquire any new
value for each other. We meet at
meals three times a day, and give
each other a new taste of that musty
old cheese that we are. We have had
to agree on a certain set of rules,
called etiquette and politeness, to
make this frequent meeting tolerable
and that we need not come to open
war. We meet at the post office, and
at the sociable, and at the fireside
every night; we live thick and are in
each other's way, and stumble over
one another, and I think that we thus
lose some respect for one another.”

5. Necessary Influences: Flexibility
 “Society is commonly too cheap. We
meet at very short intervals, not
having had time to acquire any new
value for each other. We meet at
meals three times a day, and give
each other a new taste of that musty
old cheese that we are. We have had
to agree on a certain set of rules,
called etiquette and politeness, to
make this frequent meeting tolerable
and that we need not come to open
war. We meet at the post office, and
at the sociable, and at the fireside
every night; we live thick and are in
each other's way, and stumble over
one another, and I think that we thus
lose some respect for one another.”

6. Unnecessary Influences: Extravagance
 “Simplicity, simplicity,
simplicity! I say, let
your affairs be as
two or three, and
not a hundred or a
thousand; instead of
a million count half a
dozen, and keep
your accounts on
your thumb nail.”

7. Necessary Influences: Simplicity
 “Simplicity, simplicity,
simplicity! I say, let
your affairs be as
two or three, and
not a hundred or a
thousand; instead of
a million count half a
dozen, and keep
your accounts on
your thumb nail.”

8. Unnecessary Influences: Not Living Up
to Your Purpose in Life
 “I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life...”

9. Necessary Influences: Getting the
Most Out of Life That You Can
 “I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life...”

10. Unnecessary Influences: Technology
 “We do not ride on the railroad; it rides on us.”

11. Necessary Influences: Controlling
Your Creations
 “We do not ride on the railroad; it rides on us.”

12. Unnecessary Influences: Conformity
 “If a man does not keep pace
with his companions, perhaps it
is because he hears a different
drummer.”

13. Necessary Influences: Nonconformity
 “If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is
because he hears a different drummer.”

14. Unnecessary Influences: Expansionism
 “Our life is like a German
Confederacy, made up of petty
states, with its boundary forever
fluctuating, so that even a German
cannot tell you how it is bounded at
any moment. The nation itself, with all
its so-called internal improvements,
which, by the way are all external and
superficial, is just such an unwieldy and
overgrown establishment, cluttered
with furniture and tripped up by its
own traps, ruined by luxury and
heedless expense, by want of
calculation and a worthy aim, as the
million households in the land…”

15. Necessary Influences: Keeping Within
One’s Boundaries and Supporting Frugality
 “Our life is like a German
Confederacy, made up of petty
states, with its boundary forever
fluctuating, so that even a German
cannot tell you how it is bounded at
any moment. The nation itself, with all
its so-called internal improvements,
which, by the way are all external and
superficial, is just such an unwieldy and
overgrown establishment, cluttered
with furniture and tripped up by its own
traps, ruined by luxury and heedless
expense, by want of calculation and a
worthy aim, as the million households
in the land…”

16. Unnecessary Influences: Being
Unaware of the World
 “To be awake is to be alive.”

17. Necessary Influences: Being
Knowledgeable of the World
 “To be awake is to be alive.”

18. Unnecessary Influences: Judging
Someone by the Way They Look
 “No man ever stood the lower in
my estimation for having a patch
in his clothes…”

19. Necessary Influences: Reserving Judgment
and Promoting Social Equality
 “No man ever stood the lower in my
estimation for having a patch in his
clothes…”

20. Unnecessary Influences: Distracting
Oneself Through Travel
 “It is not worth the while to go round the world to count the cats in
Zanzibar.”

21. Necessary Influences: Changing One’s
Soul Rather Than the Landscape
 “It is not worth the while to go round the world to count the cats in
Zanzibar.”

22. Unnecessary Influences: Belligerence
and Longing for War
 “Only the defeated and deserters go to the wars, cowards that run
away and enlist.”

23. Necessary Influences: Pacifism
 “Only the defeated and deserters go to the wars, cowards that run
away and enlist.”

24. Unnecessary Influences: Not Learning
as Much as You Can About Life
 “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called
resignation is confirmed desperation ... A stereotyped but unconscious
despair is concealed even under what are called the games and
amusements of mankind.“

25. Necessary Influences: Learning
Everything Life Has to Teach
 “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called
resignation is confirmed desperation ... A stereotyped but unconscious
despair is concealed even under what are called the games and
amusements of mankind.”

26. Citations
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 120305 8. N.d. Photograph. Wikihow. Wikihow. Web 29 Jan 2015. <http://www.wikihow.com/Image:120305-8.jpg>.
 5010106. N.d. Photograph. VGPublic. VGPublic. Web. 29 Jan 2015. <http://www.vgpublic.com/funzioni/f_foto_big.php?foto=5010106>.
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 6054647 m. 2012. Photograph. Skinnyms. Skinnyms. Web. 29 Jan 2015. <http://cdn.skinnyms.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/6054647_m.jpg>.
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 Anne, Elizabeth. Chandeliers. N.d. Photograph. Wed Loft. Wedding Window. Web. 29 Jan 2015.
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 Counting Cats in Zanzibar. 2014. Photograph. Sophie’s World. Sophie’s World. Web. 29 Jan 2015. <http://www.sophiesworld.net/wp-
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