What Advice Does Thoreau Offer To Those Who Live In Poverty

Henry
Thoreau doesnt specifically offer advice to anyone already living in dire poverty, per se.
Instead, in the Economy chapter of , he recommends simplifying ones life
as much as possible. This simplification extends to career choice and bank book tally. He sees
wealth as a burden, not a benefit. He tells us in paragraph 96 that he found by working about
six weeks in a year, I could meet all the expenses of living. He did surveying work, wrote,
lectured, and did some manual labor. In paragraph 98, he says, In short, I am convinced, both
by faith and experience, that to maintain ones self on this earth is not a hardship but a
pastime, if we will live simply and wisely. His needs were few, and he figured out how much
money he needed to live the way he wanted to live. He didnt need to accumulate more, just for
the sake of having it.

He continues with this theme in the next chapter,
Where I Lived, and What I Lived For, where he tackles the topics of material possession,
including land ownership. A man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can
afford to let alone, he says at the end of the first paragraph. He fostered living not only a
simple life, but a deliberate one. We dont need to surround ourselves with a lot of meaningless
stuff. He never owned property, either. As long as possible live free and uncommitted, he says
in paragraph 5. If you owned a house or land, you were chained to it unnecessarily and
permanently. This was not something he was willing to do. Yes, he lived in a simpler time, in
some ways. Yet his suggestions are still good reminders for us today: prompting us to take the
time to analyze what are the most important aspects of our lives. Work and possessions may not
be as important as we are often led to believe, especially by advertisers and marketing
experts.

You can find more of Thoreaus advice along these lines in his essay
Life Without Principle, as well as in the letters that he sent to friend H. G. O. Blake,
compiled in the book Letters to a Spiritual Seeker (Edited by Bradley P.
Dean, New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2004).