Life Without Principle (Forgotten Books) - Softcover

Thoreau, Henry David

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1606200240 ISBN 13: 9781606200247

Publisher: Forgotten Books, 2008

Synopsis

Life Without Principle is an essay by Henry David Thoreau that gives his program for right livelihood.

-Don't cheat people by conspiring with them to protect their comfort zones.
-Don't make religions and other such institutions the sort of intellectual comfort zone that prevents you from entertaining ideas that aren't to be found there.
-Don't cheat yourself by working primarily for a paycheck. If what you do with your life free-of-charge is so worthless to you that you'd be convinced to do something else in exchange for a little money or fame, you need better hobbies.
-Furthermore, don't hire someone who's only in it for the money.
-Sustain yourself by the life you live, not by exchanging your life for money and living off of that.
-It is a shame to be living off of an inheritance, charity, a government pension, or to gamble your way to prosperity - either through a lottery or by such means as prospecting for gold.
-Remember that what is valuable about a thing is not the same as how much money it will fetch on the market.
-Don't waste conversation and attention on the superficial trivialities and gossip of the daily news, but attend to things of more import: "Read not the Times. Read the Eternities."
-Similarly, politics is something that ought to be a minor and discreet part of life, not the grotesque public sport it has become.
-Don't mistake the march of commerce for progress and civilization - especially when that commerce amounts to driving slaves to produce the articles of vice like alcohol and tobacco. There's no shortage of gold, of tobacco, of alcohol, but there is a short supply of "a high and earnest purpose". (Quote from wikipedia.org)

About the Author

Henry David Thoreau (July 12,

About this title

About the Author:

Henry David Thoreau was an American author, poet, and philosopher, who is best known for his works Waldena treatise about living in concert with the natural worldand Civil Disobedience, in which he espoused the need to morally resist the actions of an unjust state. Thoreau s work heavily reflects the ideologies of the American transcendentalists, and he has long been considered a leading figure in the movement along with Ralph Waldo Emerson, Bronson Alcott, and, at first, Nathaniel Hawthorne (who changed his views later in life). In addition to his writing, which totaled more than twenty volumes, Thoreau was an active abolitionist, and lectured regularly against the Fugitive Slave Law. Thoreau died in 1862, and is buried along with Louisa May Alcott, Ellery Channing, and other notable Americans in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord, Massachusetts.

About this edition

• Publisher: Forgotten Books
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 1606200240
• ISBN 13: 9781606200247
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 38