Where I Lived, and What I Lived for

"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. "


I believe that this quote shows HDT's view of life and humanity thoroughly.  It is interesting to think that someone wished to live deliberately. I see it as two meanings. First, to live deliberately could mean to choose a particular path of life that is only subject to himself. Second, it could also mean that even though we are not really able to "choose" to be alive, we can somehow make life meaningful deliberately and different from everybody else. What are the essential facts of life. Necessity of material for being alive is important, but there is also something beyond necessity. I think he is trying to convey that there is a core of human existence. And without this core people "had not lived". He is influenced by Emerson. Emerson focuses a lot on how minds work with nature, and souls and spirits and the eyes for discovering the beauty and nature are crucial for human. Thoreau’s building of a house on Walden Pond is like the creation of the world for God. Here he mentions the spiritual freedom and divine freedom that everyone is the receiver of this kind of freedom and we should cherish and develop it.