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Famous Quotes | The rush to California ... and...

The rush to California ... and the attitude, not merely of merchants, but of philosophers and prophets, so called, in relation to it, reflect the greatest disgrace on mankind. That so many are ready to live by luck, and so get the means of commanding the labor of others less lucky, without contributing any value to society! And that is called enterprise! I know of no more startling development of the immorality of trade, and all the common modes of getting a living. The philosophy and poetry and religion of such a mankind are not worth the dust of a puffball. The hog that gets his living by rooting, stirring up the soil so, would be ashamed of such company. If I could command the wealth of all the worlds by lifting my finger, I would not pay such a price for it.... What a comment, what a satire, on our institutions! The conclusion will be, that mankind will hang itself upon a tree. - Henry David Thoreau Attribution: Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862), U.S. philosopher, author, naturalist. “Life Without Principle” (1863), in The Writings of Henry David Thoreau, vol. 4, pp. 463-464, Houghton Mifflin (1906).

Categories: Author, Gold Rush (California), Greed, Labor, Naturalist, Philosopher

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Henry David Thoreau

Titles by Henry David Thoreau:

• Civil Disobedience
• Transcendentalism
• Walden

Salem on History:

• Henry David Thoreau

Encyclopedia:

• Thoreau, Henry David (The Oxford Companion to American Military History)
• Thoreau, Henry David (The Oxford Companion to English Literature)
• Thoreau, Henry David (The Oxford Companion to American Literature)
• Thoreau, Henry David (West's Encyclopedia of American Law)

Primary Sources:

• John Brown and Henry David Thoreau (Terrorism Reference)

Salem on Literature:

• Henry David Thoreau (Critical Survey of Poetry)
• Henry David Thoreau (Censorship (Ready Reference series))
• Henry David Thoreau (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)
• The Essays of Henry David Thoreau (Masterplots, Definitive Revised Edition)
• Henry David Thoreau (Ethics (Ready Reference series))
• Henry David Thoreau (Dictionary of World Biography: The 19th Century)
• Henry David Thoreau (Cyclopedia of World Authors)

Literary Criticism:

• Thoreau, Henry David (Poetry)
• Walden; or, Life in the Woods Henry David Thoreau (Nineteenth-Century Literary Criticism)
• A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, Henry David Thoreau (Nineteenth-Century Literary Criticism)

Calendar of Literary Facts:

• Henry David Thoreau dies
• Henry David Thoreau publishes Walden; or, Life in the Woods
• Henry David Thoreau establishes residence at a cabin on Walden Pond, outside Concord, Massachusetts
• Henry David Thoreau is born