Henry David Thoreau Walden

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“Thoreau’s point of view on comforts, luxuries, and what it does to the elevation of mankind.” In Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, it states that: “Most of the luxuries and many of the so-called comforts of life are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind.” (Thoreau, Walden). In other words, Thoreau suggests that most of the comforts that we have in life are not necessaries. Thoreau’s point is that once our basic needs are met, “Money is not required to buy one necessary of the soul,” which is but an inflection of the old adage that, “The best things in life are free.” Thoreau’s view is correct because many of us confuse our needs with our wants. Happiness, or well-being, is not because of things or objects, but because of your inner-being, your state of mind and philosophy of life. Materialism is always the cause of unhappiness (the more we have, the more we want), there is always something missing and we are never content with what we have. All these comforts are holding us back, we can’t move forward without them. As noted, Thoreau had possessions that went beyond the bare necessaries in life, though a materially simple life he certainly lived. We know he built himself a small cabin with but one room, and ate a lot of beans. He tells us that his furniture, part of which he made himself, consisted of a bed, a table, a desk, three chairs, a looking-glass three inches in diameter, a kettle, a skillet, a frying pan, and so on. Some materials resources are simply indispensable to life – Food, Clothing, Shelter, and fuel – and Thoreau classified these as ‘necessaries.’ As mentioned above, Thoreau also has three other categories of material resources, namely. ‘comforts,’ which serve to make our lives more pleasurable; ‘luxuries’ which are superfluous, even harmful; and ‘tools,’ which serve to further our self-development and help us

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