The Essays of Henry David Thoreau

This gathering brings together the shorter prose of one of America’s most independent minds, from the fierce argument of ‘Civil Disobedience’ to the meditative rambles of ‘Walking’ and ‘Life Without Principle.’ Across these pieces Thoreau presses the same convictions that shaped Walden: that a person owes obedience to conscience before the state, that wild nature restores what society dulls, and that a life should be spent deliberately rather than at the pace of the crowd. Some essays argue politics and reform, others wander a New England hillside, but all carry his plain, quotable sentences and his refusal to be comfortable. Free PDF and EPUB editions are available here.