Henry David Thoreau · Public domain edition · 117 cards · 30 chapters
Henry David Thoreau's Walden argues that most people live unnecessarily burdened by inherited property, social convention, and false needs, and that simplifying life frees a person to pursue what is essential. This deck covers Thoreau's claims about labor, possessions, clothing, shelter, luxury, and philosophy through the specific passages and examples named in each card.
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Chapter 1 · Question
What does Thoreau mean by men laboring under a mistake?
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Chapter 1 · Answer
Thoreau argues that men are so occupied with factitious cares and coarse labor that life's finer fruits cannot be plucked by them. Excessive toil makes their fingers too clumsy and trembling, leaving no leisure for true integrity; the laboring man has no time to be anything but a machine. He says the better part of the man is soon plowed into the soil for compost.
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Economy (part 1)3 cards
What does Thoreau mean by men laboring under a mistake?
Thoreau argues that men are so occupied with factitious cares and coarse labor that life's finer fruits cannot be plucked by them. Excessive toil makes their fingers too clumsy and trembling, leaving no leisure for true integrity; the laboring man has no time to be anything but a machine. He says the better part of the man is soon plowed into the soil for compost.
Chapter 1
What does Thoreau say about inherited property like farms?
Thoreau calls it a misfortune for young men to inherit farms, houses, barns, cattle, and tools, since these are more easily acquired than got rid of. He asks who made them serfs of the soil and why they should begin digging their graves as soon as born. He says the portionless, free of such encumbrances, find labor enough just cultivating a few cubic feet of flesh.
Chapter 1
What does Thoreau say about old people's advice and precedent?
Thoreau argues age is no better, hardly so well, qualified as youth to instruct, since it has not profited so much as it has lost. He says he has lived some thirty years and never heard the first syllable of valuable advice from his seniors. He insists no way of thinking, however ancient, can be trusted without proof, and man's capacities have never been measured.
Chapter 1
Economy (part 2)4 cards
According to Thoreau, what is the 'grand necessity' for our bodies?
The author argues the grand necessity for our bodies is to keep warm, to retain the vital heat in us. He says we take pains with food, clothing, shelter, and beds—our night-clothes—to this end. He notes the poor man complains the world is cold, and that physical and social cold account for a great part of our ails.
Chapter 2
What does Thoreau say about most luxuries and so-called comforts of life?
The author argues most luxuries and many so-called comforts are not only not indispensable but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind. He claims the wisest have ever lived a simpler, meaguer life than the poor, citing ancient Chinese, Hindoo, Persian, and Greek philosophers as rich inwardly though poor in outward riches.
Chapter 2
How does Thoreau distinguish being a philosopher from merely professing philosophy?
The author argues there are nowadays professors of philosophy but not philosophers. To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts or found a school, but to love wisdom so as to live according to its dictates—a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity, and trust—solving life's problems practically, not only theoretically.
Chapter 2
Why did Thoreau go to Walden Pond, and what does the Indian basket seller illustrate?
The author says his purpose was not to live cheaply or dearly but to transact private business with the fewest obstacles. The Indian who wove baskets and found no buyers illustrates that making the basket is not enough; one must make it worth others' while to buy. Thoreau says he instead studied how to avoid the necessity of selling.
Chapter 2
Economy (part 3)4 cards
What does Thoreau mean by calling shirts our "liber or true bark"?
Thoreau describes clothing in layers: thin outer clothes are epidermis that can be stripped off, thicker garments are the cortex, but shirts are the liber or true bark, which cannot be removed without girdling and destroying the man. He argues a man should be clad so simply he can find himself in the dark and walk out empty-handed if an enemy takes the town.
Chapter 3
What does Thoreau say about fashion and the authority of "They"?
When his tailoress says "They do not make them so now," Thoreau questions who "They" are and what authority they hold over an affair affecting him so nearly. He argues we worship Fashion rather than the Graces or Parcae, that each generation laughs at old fashions while religiously following new ones, and that the head monkey at Paris sets the style all America copies.
Chapter 3
What is Thoreau's objection to the factory system for producing clothing?
Thoreau says he cannot believe the factory system is the best mode for getting clothing. He argues the operatives' condition grows more like the English, since the principal object is not that mankind be well and honestly clad but that corporations be enriched. He adds that men hit only what they aim at, so they should aim high even if they fail immediately.
Chapter 3
How does Thoreau compare the savage's shelter with the civilized man's house?
Thoreau argues every family in the savage state owns a shelter as good as the best, built in a day or two, while in modern civilized society not more than half of families own a shelter. The rest pay annual rent that would buy a village of wigwams. He defines cost as the amount of life exchanged for a thing, noting an average house costs eight hundred dollars, or ten to fifteen years of labor.
Chapter 3
Economy (part 4)4 cards
What does Thoreau claim about luxury and poverty in civilized countries?
The author argues that luxury of one class is counterbalanced by the indigence of another: palaces stand against almshouses and the "silent poor." He says it is a mistake to suppose that in a civilized country a large body of inhabitants may not be as degraded as savages, citing railroad shanties, English operatives, and the Irish as evidence.
Chapter 4
Why does Thoreau throw his three pieces of limestone out the window?
He was terrified to find the stones required daily dusting while the furniture of his mind was all undusted still, so he threw them out in disgust. He concludes he would rather sit in the open air, since no dust gathers on the grass unless where man has broken ground.
Chapter 4
How does Thoreau describe the first New England settlers' housing?
Citing Johnson's "Wonder-Working Providence" and a 1650 Dutch secretary's account, he says settlers burrowed into hillsides or dug square cellars six or seven feet deep, lined with wood and bark, roofed with spars and sods, living there two to four years. Wealthy men did likewise to avoid wasting time and to not discourage poor laborers.
Chapter 4
What does Thoreau say about men becoming tools of their tools?
The author argues that primitive life kept man a sojourner in nature, dwelling as in a tent. Now men have settled down and forgotten heaven: the fruit-picker became a farmer, the shelter-seeker a housekeeper, and we adopted Christianity merely as an improved method of agriculture, building a family mansion here and a family tomb for the next world.
Chapter 4
Economy (part 5)4 cards
How much did Thoreau's house materials cost, and what did he exclude?
Thoreau itemizes his house materials at $28.12½, paying usual prices for what he used but not counting his own labor, which he did entirely himself. He also excludes timber, stones, and sand, which he claimed by squatter's right. He gives details because few people can say exactly what their houses cost, and fewer still the separate cost of each material.
Chapter 5
What does Thoreau argue about architectural beauty and its source?
The author argues that architectural beauty grows from within outward, out of the necessities and character of the indweller, who is the only true builder. He criticizes a reformer architect who began at the cornice rather than the foundation, putting a core of truth inside ornaments. Thoreau holds that humble log huts of the poor are the most picturesque because of the life of their inhabitants, not their surfaces.
Chapter 5
How does Thoreau compare building one's own house to a bird building its nest?
Thoreau suggests there is a fitness in a man building his own house akin to a bird building its nest. He wonders whether, if men constructed dwellings with their own hands and provided food simply and honestly, the poetic faculty would be universally developed, as birds sing while so engaged. Instead, he says, we act like cowbirds and cuckoos, laying eggs in nests others built.
Chapter 5
What does Thoreau say about college education and the division of labor?
Thoreau argues students should not merely play or study life while the community supports them, but earnestly live it. He criticizes colleges for following division of labor to an extreme, hiring contractors and operatives to build while students supposedly prepare. He notes Cambridge room rent is thirty dollars yearly, and claims students study political economy while the economy of living, synonymous with philosophy, is not sincerely professed.
Chapter 5
Economy (part 6)4 cards
What does Thoreau claim about the cost and labor of raising one's own simple food?
Thoreau cites husbandry writers, including Arthur Young, to argue that one who lives simply and eats only the crop he raises, without exchanging it for luxuries, would need to cultivate only a few rods of ground. He adds it would be cheaper to spade that plot than to plough with oxen, to move to fresh spots than to manure old ones, and to do the work at odd hours.
Chapter 6
What does Thoreau mean by saying herds are the keepers of men?
Thoreau argues men are not so much keepers of herds as herds are keepers of men, since the animals are freer. Men and oxen exchange work, but considering only necessary work, the oxen have the advantage because their farm is larger. He says he would never break a horse or bull for fear of becoming a herdsman merely, and warns that a few become slaves of the strongest.
Chapter 6
What did Thoreau's eight-month food expense total, and what did he conclude from it?
Thoreau's food for eight months, from July 4th to March 1st, cost $8.74, about twenty-seven cents a week. His diet was mainly rye and Indian meal without yeast, potatoes, rice, a little salt pork, molasses, and salt, with water to drink. He concluded it costs incredibly little trouble to obtain necessary food even in that latitude, and a man may eat simply and retain health and strength.
Chapter 6
What did Thoreau discover when he accidentally scalded his yeast?
Thoreau regularly procured leaven from the village until one morning he forgot the rules and scalded his yeast. By this accident he discovered yeast was not indispensable, since his discoveries came by the analytic rather than synthetic process. He gladly omitted it thereafter, despite housewives assuring him safe bread required yeast and elderly people prophesying decay of vital forces, and after a year without it was still alive.
Chapter 6
Economy (part 7)4 cards
What does Thoreau say it costs him for curtains, and why?
Thoreau says curtains cost him nothing, because he has no gazers to shut out except the sun and moon, and he is willing that they should look in. The moon will not sour his milk or taint his meat, nor will the sun injure his furniture or fade his carpet. If the sun is sometimes too warm, he finds it better economy to retreat behind a curtain nature provided than to add an item to housekeeping.
Chapter 7
How did Thoreau support himself at Walden, and how much time did it take?
Thoreau states that for more than five years he maintained himself solely by the labor of his hands, and found that by working about six weeks in a year he could meet all the expenses of living. The whole of his winters, as well as most of his summers, were free and clear for study. He adds that day-laboring seemed the most independent occupation, requiring only thirty or forty days a year.
Chapter 7
Why did Thoreau's attempts at school-keeping and trade fail, in his view?
Thoreau says school-keeping failed because his expenses were in proportion, or rather out of proportion, to his income: he was obliged to dress and train, not to say think and believe, accordingly, and lost his time into the bargain, since he taught for a livelihood rather than for the good of his fellow-men. Of trade he says it would take ten years to get under way, and he feared by then he would be doing what is called a good business.
Chapter 7
What does Thoreau say about cooperation and going alone?
Thoreau argues the only cooperation commonly possible is exceedingly partial and superficial, and what little true cooperation exists is as if it were not, being a harmony inaudible to men. He says if a man has faith he will cooperate with equal faith everywhere. Above all, he holds that the man who goes alone can start to-day, but he who travels with another must wait till that other is ready.
Chapter 7
Economy (part 8)3 cards
According to Thoreau, what really saddens the reformer?
The author argues that what saddens the reformer is not sympathy with his fellows in distress but his own private ailment. If that were righted—if spring came to him—he would forsake his generous companions without apology. Thoreau illustrates with a man with a pain in his bowels who sets about reforming the world, curing his dyspepsia through philanthropic activity.
Chapter 8
What does Thoreau say we should impart to others, and what should we avoid?
Thoreau says we should impart our courage, not our despair, our health and ease, not our disease, and take care that disease does not spread by contagion. He criticizes the philanthropist who surrounds mankind with the remembrance of his own cast-off griefs and calls it sympathy. Instead, one should first be simple and well as Nature, dispelling clouds over one's own brow.
Chapter 8
What does the cypress symbolize in the passage from Sheik Sadi?
In the Gulistan of Sheik Sadi of Shiraz, a wise man explains that other trees bear fruit and have appointed seasons, being fresh then dry, but the cypress bears no fruit and is always flourishing; such are the azads, or religious independents. The counsel: fix not thy heart on the transitory; if thy hand has plenty, be liberal as the date tree; if not, be a free man like the cypress.
Chapter 8
Where I Lived, and What I Lived For4 cards
How does Thoreau describe his relationship to buying farms he never actually purchased?
Thoreau says he surveyed the country within a dozen miles and in imagination bought all the farms in succession, knowing their price, tasting their apples, and taking everything but a deed. He claims this entitled him to be regarded as a real-estate broker by friends. He argues a man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone.
Chapter 9
What happened when Thoreau tried to buy the Hollowell place?
Thoreau says he came nearest actual possession with the Hollowell place, began sorting seeds and gathering wheelbarrow materials, but before the deed the owner's wife changed her mind and wished to keep it. The owner offered him ten dollars to release him. Thoreau, who had but ten cents, let him keep both farm and money, and found he had been rich without damage to his poverty.
Chapter 9
What did Thoreau value about the Hollowell farm's attractions?
Thoreau lists the farm's complete retirement, about two miles from the village and half a mile from the nearest neighbor, separated from the highway by a broad field; its bounding on the river; the gray ruinous house and barn and dilapidated fences; hollow lichen-covered apple trees gnawed by rabbits; and above all his recollection of it from early river voyages. He wished to buy before the owner made more improvements.
Chapter 9
What does Thoreau say about morning and his daily bathing in the pond?
Thoreau calls every morning a cheerful invitation to make his life of equal simplicity and innocence with Nature. He says he was as sincere a worshipper of Aurora as the Greeks, got up early and bathed in the pond, calling it a religious exercise and one of the best things he did. He cites the inscription on king Tching-thang's bathing tub: renew thyself completely each day.
Chapter 9
Reading4 cards
Why does Thoreau call written language the 'father tongue' rather than the mother tongue?
Thoreau distinguishes spoken language, learned unconsciously from our mothers and called almost brutish and transitory, from written language, which he calls the maturity and experience of that tongue. The written word is a reserved and select expression, too significant to be heard by the ear, and he says we must be born again in order to speak it.
Chapter 10
According to Thoreau, what does true reading require of the reader?
The author argues that reading true books in a true spirit is a noble exercise demanding more than any customary exercise. It requires training like that of athletes and the steady intention of almost a whole life. Books must be read as deliberately and reservedly as they were written, standing on tiptoe and devoting our most alert, wakeful hours rather than treating reading as a lulling luxury.
Chapter 10
What does Thoreau claim about translations of the ancient classics into modern languages?
The author argues that the modern cheap and fertile press, with all its translations, has done little to bring us nearer to the heroic writers of antiquity. He claims no transcript of the classics has ever been made into any modern tongue, unless our civilization itself counts as one, and that Homer has never yet been printed in English.
Chapter 10
How does Thoreau contrast the orator's eloquence with the writer's words?
Thoreau says the noblest written words stand as far above fleeting spoken language as stars above clouds. The orator yields to a transient occasion and speaks to the mob who can hear him, while the writer, whose more equable life is his occasion, speaks to the intellect and health of mankind, to all in any age who can understand him.
Chapter 10
Sounds4 cards
What does Thoreau say we risk forgetting when confined to books?
The author argues that by reading only books and written languages—themselves but dialects and provincial—we risk forgetting "the language which all things and events speak without metaphor," which alone is copious and standard. He says much is published but little printed, and that no method or discipline can replace being forever on the alert. He asks whether one will be a reader, a student merely, or a seer.
Chapter 11
How does Thoreau describe spending summer mornings in his doorway?
He says he sometimes sat in his sunny doorway from sunrise till noon, rapt in revery amid pines, hickories, and sumachs, in undisturbed solitude, until the sun at his west window or a distant wagon reminded him of time's lapse. He grew in those seasons like corn in the night, and calls them not time subtracted from his life but over and above his usual allowance.
Chapter 11
What advantage does Thoreau claim his mode of life gave him over those seeking outside amusement?
He says his life itself became his amusement and never ceased to be novel—a drama of many scenes without an end. He argues that if we were always getting our living and regulating our lives by the last and best mode learned, we should never be troubled with ennui, and that following your genius closely enough shows a fresh prospect every hour. He cites washing his floor as pleasant pastime.
Chapter 11
How does Thoreau describe the railroad's effect on the village and its people?
He says the cars' startings and arrivals are now the epochs of the village day; their regularity lets farmers set clocks by them, so one well-conducted institution regulates a whole country. He asks whether men have improved in punctuality, talk and think faster in the depot, and notes "railroad fashion" is now the by-word. He calls the engine a constructed fate, an Atropos that never turns aside.
Chapter 11
Solitude4 cards
How does Thoreau describe his one experience of feeling lonesome in the woods?
Thoreau says he felt lonesome only once, a few weeks after arriving, when for an hour he doubted whether human neighbors were essential to a serene life. He recognized a "slight insanity" in that mood and foresaw recovery. During a gentle rain he felt an infinite friendliness in Nature, making human neighborhood seem insignificant, and never thought of it again.
Chapter 12
What does Thoreau mean by the "doubleness" of the self?
Thoreau argues that by conscious effort of mind we can stand aloof from our actions and their consequences, so that even intense experiences are observed by a part of us that is a spectator, sharing no experience but taking note. He calls this doubleness a kind of fiction, and admits it may make us poor neighbors and friends.
Chapter 12
How does Thoreau answer those who say he must feel lonesome on rainy nights?
Thoreau replies that the whole earth is but a point in space, and asks what sort of space separates a man from his fellows, since no exertion of the legs brings two minds nearer. He argues we should dwell near the perennial source of life, not near the depot, post-office, bar-room, or meeting-house where men congregate.
Chapter 12
Why does Thoreau say society is "commonly too cheap"?
Thoreau argues we meet at very short intervals without having acquired new value for each other, meeting at meals three times a day and offering the same "old musty cheese" we are. Etiquette and politeness exist to make frequent meeting tolerable. He says less frequency would suffice for hearty communication, and that a man's value is not in his skin.
Chapter 12
Visitors4 cards
What does Thoreau's three-chair arrangement in his cabin symbolize?
Thoreau writes that he had three chairs in his house: one for solitude, two for friendship, and three for society. When larger, unexpected groups came, they generally stood to save room. He marvels that twenty-five or thirty souls with their bodies fit under his roof at once, and argues that many houses are extravagantly large for their inhabitants.
Chapter 13
Why did Thoreau sometimes want distance from his guests?
Thoreau explains that in a small house it was hard to get sufficient distance from a guest when uttering big thoughts. Thought needs room to get into sailing trim before reaching the hearer, and sentences need room to unfold. He says individuals, like nations, need broad boundaries and neutral ground, and found it a luxury to talk across the pond.
Chapter 13
How did Thoreau handle meals when many guests visited?
If one guest came, Thoreau sometimes shared his frugal meal while stirring hasty-pudding or watching bread rise in the ashes. If twenty came, nothing was said about dinner even if there was bread enough for two; they practiced abstinence, which Thoreau says was never felt as an offence against hospitality. He claims he could entertain a thousand as well as twenty.
Chapter 13
What does Thoreau say about his Canadian woodchopper visitor?
Thoreau describes a Canadian woodchopper and post-maker, about twenty-eight, who had heard of Homer but not read a book through. Thoreau translated Achilles' reproof to Patroclus for him, and the man replied, 'That's good.' Thoreau says the animal man chiefly was developed in him, and that the intellectual and spiritual man were slumbering as in an infant.
Chapter 13
The Bean-Field3 cards
Why did Thoreau plant beans, and what did he do with them?
Thoreau says he did not want beans to eat, being by nature a Pythagorean as far as beans go, and exchanged them for rice. He suggests he farmed partly so some must work in fields for the sake of tropes and expression, to serve a parable-maker one day, calling it a rare amusement.
Chapter 14
What did Thoreau find while hoeing that suggested earlier cultivation?
Thoreau planted about two acres and a half of upland, cleared roughly fifteen years earlier, and gave it no manure. During the summer, arrowheads turned up in hoeing showed an extinct nation had anciently dwelt there and planted corn and beans before white men cleared the land, exhausting the soil somewhat for that crop.
Chapter 14
How did Thoreau respond to farmers who warned against working in the dew?
Thoreau says farmers warned him against working while dew was on, but he advises doing all your work if possible while the dew is on. He hoed barefoot early, dabbling in dewy crumbling sand, though later the sun blistered his feet. He calls hand labor, even near drudgery, perhaps never the worst form of idleness.
Chapter 14
The Village4 cards
Why was Thoreau seized and put into jail during his first summer at Walden?
Thoreau was seized in the village while getting a shoe from the cobbler and jailed because he did not pay a tax to, or recognize the authority of, a state that buys and sells men, women, and children like cattle. He says he might have resisted forcibly but preferred that society run "amok" against him. He was released the next day, got his mended shoe, and returned to the woods.
Chapter 15
How does Thoreau describe his daily routine of visiting the village?
Every day or two Thoreau strolled to the village to hear gossip, which in small doses he found as refreshing as the rustle of leaves and peeping of frogs. He walked there to see men and boys as he walked in the woods to see birds and squirrels, observing villagers' habits as he would prairie dogs. He calls the village a great news room and notes its vitals were the grocery, bar-room, post-office, and bank.
Chapter 15
What does Thoreau say one learns from being lost in the woods?
Thoreau argues that being lost, even briefly, is a surprising, memorable, and valuable experience. He says we unconsciously steer by known beacons, and not until completely lost or turned round do we appreciate the vastness and strangeness of Nature. He concludes that not till we are lost, in other words not till we have lost the world, do we begin to find ourselves and realize the infinite extent of our relations.
Chapter 15
What does Thoreau claim about theft and simplicity, based on his unlocked cabin?
Thoreau never locked his door, even when absent for days or a fortnight in Maine, and says his house was more respected than if surrounded by soldiers; visitors rested by his fire and read his books, and he missed only a volume of Homer. He is convinced that if all men lived as simply as he did, thieving and robbery would be unknown, since these occur only where some have more than enough while others lack enough.
Chapter 15
The Ponds (part 1)4 cards
According to Thoreau, how can one truly know the flavor of huckleberries?
The author argues that fruit does not yield its true flavor to the purchaser or to the market grower. He says there is but one way to obtain it, yet few take that way: you must pluck the berries yourself. He claims the ambrosial essential part is lost with the bloom rubbed off in the market cart, and that a huckleberry never reaches Boston.
Chapter 16
What are Walden Pond's dimensions and setting as described?
Thoreau describes Walden as a clear, deep green well, half a mile long and a mile and three quarters in circumference, containing about sixty-one and a half acres. It is a perennial spring amid pine and oak woods with no visible inlet or outlet except clouds and evaporation. Surrounding woodland hills rise abruptly forty to eighty feet, reaching about one hundred and one hundred fifty feet on the southeast and east.
Chapter 16
Why does Walden appear blue at times and green at others?
The author argues Walden is blue at one time and green at another, even from the same viewpoint, because lying between earth and heavens it partakes of the color of both. From a hilltop it reflects the sky; near shore it shows a yellowish tint over sand, then light green deepening to dark green. He suggests the green may be the prevailing blue mixed with yellow sand, not reflected verdure.
Chapter 16
How transparent is Walden's water, and what did Thoreau see through the ice?
The water is so transparent the bottom can be discerned at twenty-five or thirty feet, and bathers appear alabaster white, magnified and distorted. Once while ice fishing, his axe slid into a hole over twenty-five feet of water; lying on the ice he saw it standing on its head, helve erect and swaying with the pond's pulse, and recovered it using an ice chisel, a birch slip-noose, and a line.
Chapter 16
The Ponds (part 2)4 cards
What did Thoreau conclude about the circular stone heaps on the pond bottom?
Thoreau describes circular heaps six feet across and a foot high, made of small stones, in eight or ten feet of water near the sandy eastern shore. He doubts Indians formed them on ice, since some are too fresh and regular. Though similar to river formations, Walden has no suckers or lampreys, so he guesses they may be the nests of the chivin, lending a pleasing mystery to the bottom.
Chapter 17
How does Thoreau describe a lake in his famous metaphor?
The author argues a lake is the landscape's most beautiful and expressive feature, calling it "earth's eye," into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature. He pictures shore trees as slender eyelashes fringing it and wooded hills and cliffs as its overhanging brows. He also calls Walden a forest mirror needing no fence, which nations come and go without defiling.
Chapter 17
What fish did Thoreau say were caught in Walden, and how did he describe them?
Thoreau lists pickerel, including one of seven pounds and another the fisherman set at eight pounds though unseen; perch and pouts over two pounds; shiners, chivins or roach; a very few breams; and a couple of eels, one of four pounds. He notes the pond is not very fertile in fish, its pickerel being its chief boast, and that its fish are cleaner and firmer than river fish.
Chapter 17
What did Thoreau observe about perch in November and December?
In a calm November afternoon after days of rain, Thoreau found myriads of small perch about five inches long, bronze in the green water, rising and dimpling the surface, which he compared to a flock of birds flying beneath his level. Later, as late as December fifth, he mistook their dimples for coming rain and rowed home, but the noise of his oars scared the perch and he stayed dry.
Chapter 17
The Ponds (part 3)4 cards
Why does Thoreau object to the name 'Flint's Pond'?
The author argues the pond should not bear the name of a farmer who cared only for its money value, never saw, bathed in, loved, or protected it, and would have drained and sold it for its mud. He says it should instead be named for the fish, fowl, flowers, or some wild person whose history is tied to it.
Chapter 18
What did the man near Sudbury find when he hauled out the old yellow-pine?
He found it wrong end upward, with branch stumps pointing down and the small end fastened in the sandy bottom, about a foot in diameter at the big end. It was so rotten it was fit only for fuel. Thoreau reports the man's guess that a dead shore tree blew into the pond, drifted, and sank butt-up.
Chapter 18
How does Thoreau describe White Pond in relation to Walden?
He calls White Pond a lesser twin of Walden, sharing the same stony shore, water hue, and misty bluish-green color in sultry weather, and suggests they must be connected underground. He names it his lake country with Goose Pond and Fair-Haven, and calls Walden and White Pond 'great crystals,' 'Lakes of Light.'
Chapter 18
What does Thoreau say about the curious grass balls found in Flint's Pond?
They are spherical balls of fine grass or roots, perhaps pipewort, from half an inch to four inches in diameter, sometimes with sand in the middle, washing back and forth on the sandy bottom or cast ashore. He doubts the waves construct them, suspecting they only wear down material already consistent, since they form at one season and keep their shape when dry.
Chapter 18
Baker Farm4 cards
What advice does Thoreau give John Field about work and simple living?
Thoreau tells Field that by avoiding tea, coffee, butter, milk, and fresh meat he avoids the hard labor needed to pay for them, and that living simply would let Field build his own house cheaply and even go huckleberrying for amusement. The author argues Field works hard only to eat hard, wasting his life, and fights at an overwhelming disadvantage, living 'without arithmetic.'
Chapter 19
How does Thoreau describe John Field and his family's circumstances at the hut?
Field is an honest, hard-working but shiftless Irishman living in a long-uninhabited hut half a mile from any road, with his wife, children, and chickens sheltering from the rain. He 'bogs' for a neighbor at ten dollars an acre plus land and manure for a year, and his broad-faced son works cheerfully beside him, not knowing how poor a bargain was made.
Chapter 19
What does Thoreau say about the rainbow and the halo around his shadow?
Thoreau once stood within a rainbow's arch, living 'like a dolphin' in a lake of rainbow light, and wondered at the halo around his shadow on the railroad causeway. A visitor claimed only natives had such halos, not Irishmen. Benvenuto Cellini reported a resplendent light over his shadow after a vision in St. Angelo, which Thoreau takes as the same phenomenon, enough to base superstition on.
Chapter 19
What does Thoreau's 'Good Genius' urge him to do as he leaves the Irishman's roof?
The voice urges him to fish and hunt far and wide, rest by many brooks and hearth-sides without misgiving, rise free from care before dawn, and seek adventures, letting noon and night find him at home anywhere. It says to grow wild like the sedges that never become English hay, to let getting a living be his sport not his trade, and to enjoy the land without owning it.
Chapter 19
Higher Laws4 cards
What two instincts does Thoreau say he finds in himself?
The author says he finds in himself, as do most men, an instinct toward a higher or spiritual life and another toward a primitive, rank, and savage one. He reveres both, declaring he loves the wild not less than the good, and he values fishing and hunting for the wildness and adventure they offer.
Chapter 20
Why does Thoreau tell parents to let their boys hunt?
Asked anxiously whether boys should hunt, the author answers yes, recalling hunting as one of the best parts of his education. He pities the boy who never fired a gun, saying such a boy is no more humane while his education is neglected. He trusts boys will outgrow the pursuit, and holds that no humane being past thoughtless boyhood will wantonly kill a creature.
Chapter 20
What practical objection does Thoreau raise against eating animal food?
The author's practical objection to animal food was its uncleanness: catching, cleaning, cooking, and eating fish involved trouble and filth, and the fish did not essentially feed him. He says a little bread or a few potatoes would have done as well. He also argues that those earnest to preserve higher or poetic faculties have inclined to abstain from animal food and from much food of any kind.
Chapter 20
What does Thoreau say about following one's genius?
The author argues that if one listens to the faintest but constant suggestions of his genius, he cannot tell to what extremes or even insanity it may lead, yet that is his road. He claims no man ever followed his genius till it misled him, and that even bodily weakness is not to be regretted if life conforms to higher principles. Success is greeting day and night with joy.
Chapter 20
Brute Neighbors4 cards
What two kinds of ants fought in the battle Thoreau witnessed at his wood-pile?
Thoreau observed a war between two races of ants: the red ants, which he calls the republicans, and the larger black ants, nearly half an inch long, which he calls the imperialists. The red were often two to one black. The chips were covered with combatants, and the ground was strewn with dead and dying of both colors.
Chapter 21
How does Thoreau compare the ant battle to human wars?
The author argues the ant battle rivals human conflicts: he calls it an Austerlitz or Dresden for numbers and carnage, and says no fight in Concord or American history compares for patriotism and heroism. He notes every ant was a Buttrick and thousands shared the fate of Davis and Hosmer, and he doubts any were hirelings—they fought for a principle.
Chapter 21
How did the partridge mother protect and direct her brood near Thoreau's house?
The shy partridge led her brood past Thoreau's windows like a hen, clucking and calling. On approach, the young disperse at her signal, resembling dried leaves so closely that travelers tread among them unknowingly. The parent may feign broken wings to draw attention. The young squat flat and obey her distant directions, not fleeing even when handled.
Chapter 21
What did Thoreau observe about the wild native mice in his house?
The mice haunting Thoreau's house were a wild native kind, not the common introduced ones, and one interested a distinguished naturalist. During building, one nested under the house and came out at lunchtime for crumbs, becoming tame enough to run over his shoes and up his clothes, ascend walls like a squirrel, and nibble cheese from his hand before cleaning itself.
Chapter 21
House-Warming4 cards
What did Thoreau do with the wasps that came to his lodge in October?
Thousands of wasps came to his lodge in October as to winter quarters, settling on his windows and walls and sometimes deterring visitors. Each morning, when they were numbed with cold, he swept some out, but he did not trouble much to get rid of them. He even felt complimented that they regarded his house as a desirable shelter, and they never molested him seriously.
Chapter 22
How did Thoreau build his chimney, and what did he learn from it?
Thoreau studied masonry and cleaned second-hand bricks with a trowel, learning more than usual about bricks and trowels. The mortar was fifty years old and said to be still growing harder, a saying he doubted. He picked out fireplace bricks to save work, filled spaces with pond-shore stones, and made mortar from white sand. He lingered most about the fireplace as the most vital part of the house.
Chapter 22
Why did Thoreau prefer his house before it was plastered?
Thoreau says his house never pleased his eye so much after it was plastered, though he confessed it was more comfortable. He valued the rough brown boards full of knots and rafters with bark overhead, asking whether every dwelling should be lofty enough to create obscurity overhead where flickering shadows play. He found these forms more agreeable to fancy and imagination than fresco paintings or expensive furniture.
Chapter 22
What does Thoreau imagine a larger, more populous house would be like?
Thoreau dreams of a vast, rude, primitive one-room hall of enduring materials, without ceiling or plastering, with bare rafters supporting a lower heaven. Some might live in the fireplace, some in a window recess, some on rafters with spiders. It would contain all essentials and nothing for house-keeping, with everything visible at one view, and a guest would be given freedom of the house rather than shut in a cell.
Chapter 22
Former Inhabitants and Winter Visitors4 cards
What did Thoreau do to conjure human society during his solitary winter at Walden?
For human society Thoreau was obliged to conjure up the former occupants of these woods. He recalls that within his townsmen's memory the road near his house resounded with inhabitants' laugh and gossip, and the woods were dotted with their little gardens and dwellings, though then much more shut in by forest. He names former residents such as Cato Ingraham, Zilpha, Brister Freeman, the Strattons, Breed, Wyman the potter, and Hugh Quoil.
Chapter 23
Who was Zilpha, and what happened to her dwelling?
Zilpha was a colored woman who had her little house near the corner of Thoreau's field, where she spun linen for the townsfolk and made the woods ring with her loud, notable singing. In the war of 1812, her dwelling was set on fire by English soldiers, prisoners on parole, while she was away, and her cat, dog, and hens were all burned up together. Thoreau says she led a hard and somewhat inhumane life.
Chapter 23
How does Thoreau describe New-England Rum at Breed's location?
At Breed's location Thoreau calls the ground famous for the pranks of a demon not distinctly named in old mythology, who has acted a prominent part in New England life and deserves a biography: New-England Rum. He says this demon first comes in the guise of a friend or hired man, then robs and murders the whole family. Thoreau adds that history must not yet tell the tragedies enacted there.
Chapter 23
What did Thoreau find when he visited Hugh Quoil's abandoned house?
Before the house was pulled down, Thoreau visited it though comrades called it an unlucky castle. He found Quoil's old clothes curled up by use on his raised plank bed, his pipe broken on the hearth, and soiled cards—kings of diamonds, spades, and hearts—scattered on the floor. A black chicken still went to roost next door, and a woodchuck skin was stretched on the back of the house, a trophy of his last Waterloo.
Chapter 23
Winter Animals4 cards
What new uses did the frozen ponds offer Thoreau in winter?
Once firmly frozen, the ponds gave Thoreau new and shorter routes to many points and new views of the familiar landscape from their surfaces. Walden, usually bare of snow, became his yard where he could walk and skate freely while villagers were confined to their streets by nearly two feet of snow elsewhere.
Chapter 24
How did Thoreau describe the hooting owl's winter call?
Thoreau heard the owl's forlorn but melodious note indefinitely far, calling it the very lingua vernacula of Walden Wood, familiar to him though he never saw the bird making it. He rendered it as 'Hoo hoo hoo, hoorer, hoo,' with the first three syllables accented somewhat like 'how der do.'
Chapter 24
What did Thoreau observe about the red squirrels and his corn?
Thoreau threw out half a bushel of unripe sweet-corn on the snow crust and watched the animals baited by it. Red squirrels came all day, approaching warily by fits and starts, pausing and somersaulting, then carrying off ears bigger than themselves in a zig-zag course, leaving cobs strewn about the woods.
Chapter 24
What did the old hunter tell Thoreau about hunting a fox?
The old hunter described hearing hounds, then seeing a fox leap walls and evade his bullet. Later the fox appeared threading the woods, leaped onto a rock and sat listening with its back to him. Compassion briefly restrained him, but he leveled his piece and shot the fox dead, then stayed listening to the hounds.
Chapter 24
The Pond in Winter4 cards
How deep did Thoreau find Walden Pond, and how did he measure it?
Thoreau surveyed Walden in early 1846 with compass, chain, and sounding line, finding a greatest depth of exactly 102 feet, plus 5 feet it had risen since, making 107. He used a cod-line and a stone of about a pound and a half, and could tell when the stone left the bottom because he had to pull harder before water got underneath.
Chapter 25
What did Thoreau conclude about stories that Walden was bottomless?
Thoreau argues the bottomless-pond stories had no foundation. He notes men will believe in bottomlessness without sounding a pond, and he visited two such Bottomless Ponds in one walk. He says the rope-haulers were really fathoming their own immeasurable capacity for marveling, and he assures readers Walden has a reasonably tight bottom at an unusual but not unreasonable depth.
Chapter 25
What coincidence did Thoreau find in his depth map of Walden?
After mapping the pond at ten rods to an inch with over a hundred soundings, Thoreau found that the line of greatest length intersected the line of greatest breadth exactly at the point of greatest depth. He wondered whether this hint might locate the deepest part of the ocean too. He also noted a hill is not highest at its narrowest part.
Chapter 25
How did Thoreau test his ability to predict a pond's deepest point?
Thoreau made a plan of White Pond, about forty-one acres, with no island and no visible inlet or outlet. From the outlines and shores alone he marked a predicted deepest point. The actual deepest spot was within one hundred feet of it, farther in the direction he had inclined, and only one foot deeper, at sixty feet. He notes a stream or island would complicate the problem.
Chapter 25
Spring4 cards
Why does Walden Pond break up later than nearby ponds like Flint's and Fair-Haven?
The author attributes it to Walden's greater depth and the absence of any stream passing through it to melt or wear away the ice. Flint's Pond, being largely shallow, warms faster: on March 6, 1847, deep water in Walden read 32°, while shallow water under a foot of ice in Flint's Pond read 36°. Walden commonly opens about April 1, a week or ten days later.
Chapter 26
How does Thoreau explain the sun's role in melting pond ice?
The author argues the sun works both directly and indirectly: its heat passes through ice a foot or more thick, is reflected from the bottom in shallow water, and warms the water and melts the ice's underside while also melting it from above. Bubbles inside the ice act as burning-glasses melting the ice beneath. Ice has a grain, and rotting or 'combing' ice shows air cells at right angles to the former water surface.
Chapter 26
What did Thoreau observe about the booming of Flint's Pond ice on February 24, 1850?
Striking the ice with his axe, it resounded like a gong for many rods. The pond began to boom about an hour after sunrise, kept it up three or four hours, took a siesta at noon, and boomed again toward night. In midday, full of cracks and with less elastic air, it lost resonance. Thoreau notes the pond does not thunder every evening, and fishermen say the thundering scares fishes and stops them biting.
Chapter 26
What forms does thawing sand and clay take in the railroad cut, and what does Thoreau make of them?
Flowing down the slopes like lava, the sand forms sappy leaves, vines, and pulpy sprays resembling lichen thalluses, coral, leopard's paws, or brains. Thoreau calls it a grotesque vegetation, more ancient than acanthus or ivy, and feels he stands in the Artist's laboratory, seeing an anticipation of the vegetable leaf in sand. Reaching the drain, the streams flatten into strands, then sand, then banks.
Chapter 26
Conclusion (part 1)4 cards
What reason does Thoreau give for leaving the woods?
Thoreau says he left the woods for as good a reason as he went there: it seemed to him he had several more lives to live and could not spare any more time for that one. He notes how easily people fall into a particular route and wear a beaten track, and he did not wish to take a cabin passage but to go on the deck of the world.
Chapter 27
What does Thoreau claim he learned from his experiment at Walden?
The author argues that if one advances confidently in the direction of one's dreams and endeavors to live the imagined life, one meets a success unexpected in common hours, passing an invisible boundary as new and more liberal laws establish themselves. As one simplifies life, the laws of the universe appear less complex, and solitude, poverty, and weakness lose their sting.
Chapter 27
What does Thoreau mean by advising readers to explore themselves?
Thoreau urges readers to be a Columbus to whole new continents and worlds within, opening channels not of trade but of thought, and to explore their own higher latitudes rather than chasing giraffes in Africa. He argues every person is lord of a realm beside which the Czar's empire is petty, and that exploring one's private sea alone is harder than sailing with a government ship and five hundred men.
Chapter 27
What does the story of the Kouroo artist's staff illustrate?
The artist resolved to make a perfect staff, rejecting stick after stick while friends aged and died and dynasties fell; when he finished, the staff expanded into the fairest creation of Brahma, a new system with full and fair proportions. Thoreau uses this to suggest that for the artist and his work, the lapse of time had been an illusion, no longer than a scintillation from Brahma's brain.
Chapter 27
Conclusion (part 2)4 cards
What does Thoreau say about the hospitality of the rich table he visited?
Thoreau describes sitting at a table with abundant rich food, wine, and obsequious attendance, but without sincerity or truth. He left hungry from the inhospitable board, comparing its cold hospitality to ice. He says the age and fame of the wine meant nothing to him, since he thought of an older, newer, purer wine they could not buy.
Chapter 28
What does Thoreau mean by driving a nail home and clinching it faithfully?
Thoreau urges that work be done so faithfully one can wake at night and think of it with satisfaction, unashamed to invoke the Muse. He warns against driving a nail into mere lath and plastering, or depending on putty. Each nail driven should be like a rivet in the machine of the universe, carrying on the work.
Chapter 28
What does the story of the insect emerging from the old apple-wood table illustrate?
A strong, beautiful bug came out of the dry leaf of an old apple-tree table that had stood in a farmer's kitchen for sixty years, first in Connecticut then Massachusetts, from an egg deposited in the living tree years earlier. Thoreau says this strengthens faith in resurrection and immortality, suggesting buried winged life may unexpectedly emerge from society's trivial furniture.
Chapter 28
According to Thoreau, why are majorities permitted to rule?
Thoreau argues majorities rule not because they are most likely right, nor because it seems fairest to the minority, but because they are physically the strongest. He contends a government where the majority rules in all cases cannot be based on justice, and asks whether conscience rather than majority should decide right and wrong.
Chapter 28
Conclusion (part 3)4 cards
According to Thoreau, what is the proper place for a just man under an unjust government?
The author argues that under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison. He calls it the only house in a slave-state where a free man can abide with honor, and claims that one honest man in Massachusetts withdrawing from the slaveholding copartnership and being jailed would accomplish the abolition of slavery in America.
Chapter 29
What does Thoreau say about a minority that conforms to the majority?
The author argues a minority is powerless while it conforms to the majority—it is not even a minority then—but it is irresistible when it clogs by its whole weight. He urges casting your whole vote, not a strip of paper merely but your whole influence, and asserts that any man more right than his neighbors already constitutes a majority of one.
Chapter 29
What does Thoreau say a man must do before pursuing his own contemplations?
The author argues it is not a man's duty to eradicate even the most enormous wrong, but it is his duty at least to wash his hands of it and not give it practical support. If he devotes himself to other pursuits, he must first see he does not pursue them sitting on another man's shoulders—he must get off him first.
Chapter 29
How does Thoreau characterize the relationship between money and virtue?
The author argues that the rich man is always sold to the institution which makes him rich, and that absolutely speaking, the more money, the less virtue. Money comes between a man and his objects and obtains them for him, putting to rest questions he would otherwise be taxed to answer, so his moral ground is taken from under his feet.
Chapter 29
Conclusion (part 4)4 cards
Why does Thoreau say he refuses to pay the tax?
Thoreau states it is for no particular item in the tax-bill. He simply wishes to refuse allegiance to the State, to withdraw and stand aloof from it effectually. He says he does not care to trace his dollar, which is innocent, but is concerned to trace the effects of his allegiance. He quietly declares war with the State after his fashion while still using whatever advantages he can.
Chapter 30
What does Thoreau say the State uses to confront a man?
The author argues the State never intentionally confronts a man's sense, intellectual or moral, but only his body and his senses. It is not armed with superior wit or honesty, but with superior physical strength. He adds that he was not born to be forced and will breathe after his own fashion, asking who is strongest.
Chapter 30
How does Thoreau describe his night in prison?
He calls the night novel and interesting. His roommate, called a first-rate fellow and clever man, was accused of burning a barn but said he never did it; Thoreau guesses he slept drunk in a barn and smoked his pipe. The prisoner had waited about three months for trial and expected as much longer, yet was domesticated and contented, getting board for nothing.
Chapter 30
How does Thoreau describe his neighbors after leaving prison?
The author argues he saw more distinctly the State he lived in and how far his neighbors could be trusted as good neighbors and friends: their friendship was for summer weather only, and they did not greatly purpose to do right. He calls them a distinct race from him by their prejudices and superstitions, and says most are unaware their village even has a jail.
Chapter 30
Source and licence
Text used: Project Gutenberg eBook #205 (Public domain in the United States). Generated from the full text; cards paraphrase the source.
Version: Public domain edition. Retrieved 2026-10-18. Cards reviewed 2026-10-18.
These cards paraphrase the text for study. They are not a substitute for reading the book, and they do not reproduce long passages.
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