Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau was a nineteenth-century American essayist, naturalist, and philosopher best known for *Walden*, his account of two years spent living simply in a cabin near Walden Pond, and "Civil Disobedience," an essay advocating nonviolent resistance to unjust government.
A transcendentalist associated with Ralph Waldo Emerson, Thoreau championed self-reliance, deliberate living, and individual conscience over social conformity.
His ideas influenced later figures including Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.
Intuition-based idealist philosophy
- individualismDoctrine of personal independence
- self-relianceDepending on oneself alone
- civil disobediencePeaceful refusal to obey
- conscienceInternal moral sense
simplicity · nonviolence · nonconformity · higher law · deliberate living · materialism · government · resistance
Author of short prose
- journalsPeriodicals or personal logs
- Cape CodMassachusetts coastal peninsula
- nature writingGenre depicting landscapes and ecology
- proseUnversified language
literary · manuscripts · lecturer · Lyceum · aphorisms · quotations · posthumous · excursions
Small still body
- cabinSimple wooden dwelling
- solitudeState of being alone
- reflectionReturned light or thought
- experimentSystematic investigation procedure
Walden Pond · woods · simplicity · self-sufficiency · beans · chimney · ice · shore
Opposing human bondage
- Underground RailroadCovert abolitionist escape network
- John BrownRadical antislavery insurrectionist
- reformerAgent of institutional improvement
- dissentDisagreement with authority
Frederick Douglass · protest · conscience · justice · resistance · moral courage · radical
Northeastern colonial state
Science of flora
- ornithologyScientific study of birds
- phenologyStudy of seasonal cycles
- natural historyStudy of organisms and environments
- fieldworkResearch conducted on location
observations · specimens · flora · fauna · wildflowers · birdsong · seasons · succession
transcendentalism
Intuition-based idealist philosophy
- individualismDoctrine of personal independence
- self-relianceDepending on oneself alone
- civil disobediencePeaceful refusal to obey
conscience · simplicity · nonviolence · nonconformity · higher law · deliberate living · materialism · government · resistance · pacifism
essayist
Author of short prose
- journalsPeriodicals or personal logs
- Cape CodMassachusetts coastal peninsula
- nature writingGenre depicting landscapes and ecology
prose · literary · manuscripts · lecturer · Lyceum · aphorisms · quotations · posthumous · excursions · pamphleteer
pond
Small still body
- cabinSimple wooden dwelling
- solitudeState of being alone
- reflectionReturned light or thought
experiment · Walden Pond · woods · simplicity · self-sufficiency · beans · chimney · ice · shore · hermitage
antislavery
Opposing human bondage
- Underground RailroadCovert abolitionist escape network
- John BrownRadical antislavery insurrectionist
- reformerAgent of institutional improvement
Frederick Douglass · dissent · protest · conscience · justice · resistance · moral courage · radical
Massachusetts
Northeastern colonial state
- EmersonAnglo surname, various namesakes
- Alcott19th-century American novelist
- HawthorneSurname from spiny shrubs
Merrimack · Main Street · surveyor · birthplace · Walden Pond
botany
Science of flora
- ornithologyScientific study of birds
- phenologyStudy of seasonal cycles
- natural historyStudy of organisms and environments
fieldwork · observations · specimens · flora · fauna · wildflowers · birdsong · seasons · succession · limnology
- TranscendentalistsRalph Waldo Emerson, Emerson
- AuthorsShakespeare, William Shakespeare, Mark Twain, Twain, F. Scott Fitzgerald
- American ClassicsMoby-Dick, Moby Dick, The Scarlet Letter, Walden, Leaves of Grass
- American LiteratureThe Great Gatsby, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Scarlet Letter, Moby-Dick, Moby Dick
- American AuthorsMark Twain, Edgar Allan Poe, Twain, Poe, Hawthorne
- Bay StatersJohn F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Edward Kennedy, John Adams, Abigail Adams
Henry David ThoreauAndrew Carnegie
Scottish-American steel magnate
P.T. Barnum · John D. Rockefeller · robber baron · Cornelius Vanderbilt · J.P. Morgan
Henry David Thoreauauthoritarian
Favoring absolute control
statist · conformist · loyalist · totalitarian · Daniel Webster
Henry David Thoreaumaterialist
Values physical over spiritual
consumerist · hedonist · Donald Trump · spendthrift · acquisitive