Henry David Thoreau - vertaling naar frans
![Bird eggs found by Thoreau and given to the [[Boston Society of Natural History]]. Those in the nest are of [[yellow warbler]], the other two of [[red-tailed hawk]].](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/Eggs BSNH 1930.png?width=200 "Bird eggs found by Thoreau and given to the [[Boston Society of Natural History]]. Those in the nest are of [[yellow warbler]], the other two of [[red-tailed hawk]].")
![Sleepy Hollow Cemetery]] in Concord](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/Grave of Henry David Thoreau.jpeg?width=200 "Sleepy Hollow Cemetery]] in Concord")
![1967 U.S. postage stamp honoring Thoreau, designed by [[Leonard Baskin]]](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/Thoreau1967stamp.jpg?width=200 "1967 U.S. postage stamp honoring Thoreau, designed by [[Leonard Baskin]]")
![bust]] of Thoreau from the [[Hall of Fame for Great Americans]] at the [[Bronx Community College]]](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/ThoreauBust.jpg?width=200 "bust]] of Thoreau from the [[Hall of Fame for Great Americans]] at the [[Bronx Community College]]")
![[[Walden Pond]]](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/Walden Pond, 2010.jpg?width=200 "[[Walden Pond]]")
Definitie
Wikipedia
Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817 – May 6, 1862) was an American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher. A leading transcendentalist, he is best known for his book Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay "Civil Disobedience" (originally published as "Resistance to Civil Government"), an argument for disobedience to an unjust state.
Thoreau's books, articles, essays, journals, and poetry amount to more than 20 volumes. Among his lasting contributions are his writings on natural history and philosophy, in which he anticipated the methods and findings of ecology and environmental history, two sources of modern-day environmentalism. His literary style interweaves close observation of nature, personal experience, pointed rhetoric, symbolic meanings, and historical lore, while displaying a poetic sensibility, philosophical austerity, and attention to practical detail. He was also deeply interested in the idea of survival in the face of hostile elements, historical change, and natural decay; at the same time he advocated abandoning waste and illusion in order to discover life's true essential needs.
Thoreau was a lifelong abolitionist, delivering lectures that attacked the fugitive slave law while praising the writings of Wendell Phillips and defending the abolitionist John Brown. Thoreau's philosophy of civil disobedience later influenced the political thoughts and actions of such notable figures as Leo Tolstoy, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Jr.
Thoreau is sometimes referred to as an anarchist. In "Civil Disobedience", Thoreau wrote: "I heartily accept the motto,—'That government is best which governs least;' and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe,—'That government is best which governs not at all;' and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have. ... But, to speak practically and as a citizen, unlike those who call themselves no-government men, I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government."
