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barareads's review against another edition
3.0
OK this text is easier to read than Emerson‘s nature, thank God for that…
the very first idea about not many people understanding or like being in on ‘the art of walking’ is great, motivational; then it gets a little bit weird but still a lot of good points that I could even use in different fields of my research. there are of course a lot of nice quotes. a little bit of hypocrisy in his praising of America, I was a bit uncomfortable reading about that considering the year in which it was written…
he sure loves the word ‘perchance’… and the part where he predicts that Americans will be so much more intellectual than Europeans was really funny to read.
overall it’s a good essay. I’m not exactly smart enough to understand all of it and analyze it all in depth but this time I got more than just the gist of it, so hooray i guess
the very first idea about not many people understanding or like being in on ‘the art of walking’ is great, motivational; then it gets a little bit weird but still a lot of good points that I could even use in different fields of my research. there are of course a lot of nice quotes. a little bit of hypocrisy in his praising of America, I was a bit uncomfortable reading about that considering the year in which it was written…
he sure loves the word ‘perchance’… and the part where he predicts that Americans will be so much more intellectual than Europeans was really funny to read.
overall it’s a good essay. I’m not exactly smart enough to understand all of it and analyze it all in depth but this time I got more than just the gist of it, so hooray i guess
liambetts's review against another edition
4.0
Very short, but this really inspired me. I love Thoreau's writing style, word choice and philosophy, even if he might be setting up a false dichotomy between nature and civilization.
Here are some of my favorite quotes:
“We go eastward to realize history and study the works of art and literature, retracing the steps of the race; we go westward as into the future, with a spirit of enterprise and adventure. The Atlantic is a Lethean stream, in our passage over which we have had an opportunity to forget the Old World and its institutions. ”
"All other literatures endure only as the elms which overshadow our houses; but this is like the great dragon-tree of the Western Isles, as old as mankind, and, whether that does or not, will endure as long; for the decay of other literatures makes the soil in which it thrives.”
“Above all, we cannot afford not to live in the present. He is blessed over all mortals who loses no moment of the passing life in remembering the past.”
I've read excerpts of Walden before, but I've really got to reread it.
Here are some of my favorite quotes:
“We go eastward to realize history and study the works of art and literature, retracing the steps of the race; we go westward as into the future, with a spirit of enterprise and adventure. The Atlantic is a Lethean stream, in our passage over which we have had an opportunity to forget the Old World and its institutions. ”
"All other literatures endure only as the elms which overshadow our houses; but this is like the great dragon-tree of the Western Isles, as old as mankind, and, whether that does or not, will endure as long; for the decay of other literatures makes the soil in which it thrives.”
“Above all, we cannot afford not to live in the present. He is blessed over all mortals who loses no moment of the passing life in remembering the past.”
I've read excerpts of Walden before, but I've really got to reread it.
wmmcnamara's review against another edition
“A town is saved, not more by the righteous men in it than by the woods and swamps that surround it. A township where one primitive forest waves above, while another primitive forest rots below,—such a town is fitted to raise not only corn and potatoes, but poets and philosophers for the coming ages. In such a soil grew Homer and Confucius and the rest, and out of such a wilderness comes the Reformer eating locusts and wild honey.”
meetingcanada's review against another edition
adventurous
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
4.5
papidoc's review against another edition
4.0
I listened to this as an audiobook, and found it a bit difficult. Partly that may be due to the denseness of Thoreau's writing, but I suspect that it was mostly due to the reader. He read in something of a singsong manner, and was a bit difficult to understand sometimes, leading to a tendency for my mind to wander. I think this is one that I need to read for myself, with pen and notebook nearby, to process it better. Nonetheless, there were flashes of brilliance that came through as I was driving to and from work, and those make me eager to read it more carefully.