1. From “Where I Lived and What I Lived For”
Walden
From “Where I Lived and What I Lived For”

2. Living Deliberately The reason Thoreau went to live at Walden Pond
He felt a need at that time to find the true meaning of life by doing something new and different.
“I did not wish to live what was not life”
Thoreau does not want to get caught up in life’s unimportant details.
He wants to live meaningful life that is stripped of inessentials.

3. “Our life is frittered away by detail”
What can you do to your life to avoid this?
“Keep your accounts on your thumb nail.”
Simplify your life!
Own and owe so little that you have almost no accounts to keep.
Let go of unimportant things.

4. Life’s Inessential Details
Usually add to the complexity of life
Examples in Walden
Thoreau mocks those who are reliant on newspapers and letters.
Compares the sightless victim (from the Wachito River) to those whose excessive interest in the printed passing of time blinds them to what is truly important.

5. From “Conclusion”
“. . . I left the woods for as good a reason as I went there.” What was the reason?
Thoreau left because he thought it was time to do something else with his life.
He felt he had “more lives to live” and believed he was in danger of “easily and insensibly fall[ing] into a particular route.”

6. What did Thoreau learn from his stay at Walden?
“[I]f one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”
Following your dreams is worthy and reasonable. Why?

7. Dreams
“If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put foundations under them.”
Dream big and work hard.
Big dreams take time and effort to come true.
Challenge yourself; you’ll stand up to the test.
Do what you need to do to make your dreams come true.