one of the aspects of his and other Transcendentalist poets'/writers' writing from that time that is so beautifully captured by this excerpt is its the almost hypnotic cadence. It's hard not to read it in a stodgy new-englander voice. 

> “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. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms...”

!!!!!!!!!!!!!

plebpoet

>“You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island of opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land; there is no other life but this.”

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i also found Walden bit drudging, but it has been years since i have read it. 
Civil Disobedience packed more of a punch for me.

A wonderful poet. Read most of Walden but couldn't finish. I couldn't take reading exactly how much everything cost, but it's good for being a bitcoiner! 

bitcoingecko

Yeah, Thoreau being born today feels like a perfect excuse to unplug, touch some grass, and re-read Civil Disobedience with fresh eyes — especially in an age where opting out has never felt more relevant. Total proto-cypherpunk energy, even if he didn't know it.

HighOfLot

Great american transcendentalist and author of 

 was born on this day, making it a good day to celebrate nature, meditate on freedom and perhaps re-visit his great 

, which is much more cypherpunk than the man himself could have ever imagined.

BooksAndArticles

Great american transcendentalist and author of [Civil Disobedience](https://stacker.news/items/784341) was born on this day, making it a good day to celebrate nature, meditate on freedom and perhaps re-visit his great [essay](https://cdn.preterhuman.net/texts/unsorted/Henry%20David%20Thoreau%20-%20Civil%20Disobedience.pdf), which is much more cypherpunk than the man himself could have ever imagined.