Where I Lived And What I Lived For
What the text says
What the text means
Rhetorical Devices
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.
Thoreau wanted to get the most from his life by determining what was really important.
In this quote Thoreau uses the rhetorical device, aphorism: a pithy observation that contains a general truth, such as, “if it ain't broke, don't fix it.” He went to the woods because he wanted to enlighten himself.
Still we live meanly, like ants; though the fable tells us that we were long ago changed into men; like pygmies we fight with cranes; it is error upon error, and clout upon clout, and our best virtue has for its occasion a superfluous and evitable wretchedness.
Humans live their lives with what they have or what they can get with what they've got, just going through the motions. And that we make mistakes and don't learn from them, like a never-ending cycle. And also that we have good intentions for what we do, even if what we do isn't the best thing.
In this quote Thoreau uses the rhetorical devices, aphorism and simile. He is comparing how we live to how ants live with a simile. He’s using an aphorism to describe how people focus on materialistic things.
Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumbnail.
Thoreau uses his journey into nature to force himself into living a life of simplicity. By surrounding himself only with nature, he is now able to reflect deeply on his idea if the meaning of life.
In this quote Thoreau uses the rhetorical devices, aphorism and repetition. He’s saying its important to live a modest life.
Why should we live with such hurry and waste of life? We are determined to be starved before we are hungry.
This quote
What the text means
Rhetorical Devices
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.
Thoreau wanted to get the most from his life by determining what was really important.
In this quote Thoreau uses the rhetorical device, aphorism: a pithy observation that contains a general truth, such as, “if it ain't broke, don't fix it.” He went to the woods because he wanted to enlighten himself.
Still we live meanly, like ants; though the fable tells us that we were long ago changed into men; like pygmies we fight with cranes; it is error upon error, and clout upon clout, and our best virtue has for its occasion a superfluous and evitable wretchedness.
Humans live their lives with what they have or what they can get with what they've got, just going through the motions. And that we make mistakes and don't learn from them, like a never-ending cycle. And also that we have good intentions for what we do, even if what we do isn't the best thing.
In this quote Thoreau uses the rhetorical devices, aphorism and simile. He is comparing how we live to how ants live with a simile. He’s using an aphorism to describe how people focus on materialistic things.
Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumbnail.
Thoreau uses his journey into nature to force himself into living a life of simplicity. By surrounding himself only with nature, he is now able to reflect deeply on his idea if the meaning of life.
In this quote Thoreau uses the rhetorical devices, aphorism and repetition. He’s saying its important to live a modest life.
Why should we live with such hurry and waste of life? We are determined to be starved before we are hungry.
This quote