"I see young men, my townsmen, whose..." - Quote by Henry David Thoreau

I see young men, my townsmen, whose misfortune it is to have inherited farms, houses, barns, cattle, and farming tools; for these are more easily acquired than got rid of. Better if they had been born in the open pasture and suckled by a wolf, that they might have seen with clearer eyes what field they were called to labor in. Who made them serfs of the soil? Why should they eat their sixty acres, when man is condemned to eat only his peck of dirt? Why should they begin digging their graves as soon as they are born?
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More by Henry David Thoreau

“Most, it would seem to me, do not care for nature and would sell their share.”
— Henry David Thoreau
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— Henry David Thoreau
“Like speaks to like only; labor to labor, philosophy to philosophy, criticism to criticism, poetry to poetry. Literature speaks how much still to the past, how little to the future, how much to the East, how little to the West.”
— Henry David Thoreau

More on Materialism

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— Henry David Thoreau

More on Freedom

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