The Meanings of the Statements of Henry David Thoreau

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1 According to Thoreau’s statement, “For a man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone”, It means that the more a person is contented with the things they have and willing to let go of those he or she cannot afford, the more likely they are to lead a happier life and the less trouble they invite in their lives.
2 “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.” This statement according to Thoreau means that one should not just be alive but they need to live and this will mean taking the path least traveled and discovering oneself in terms of pursuing and achieving their dreams in the best way they can.
3 “Our life is frittered away by detail. An honest man has hardly need to count more than his ten fingers.” Thoreau means that people are getting lost in the details unnecessarily explaining that people should seek to live a simple life which is more enjoyable compared to one full of material things. People should be as happy having ten things as much as they would be if they had a thousand more things simply because life is complicated enough without the burden of superfluous items.
4 “If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; there is where they should be. Now put foundations under them.” In this statement, Thoreau suggests that dreams are good and when one has a dream, they should pursue the same through hard work and advancing in the direction of their dreams in order to achieve their success.
5 When Thoreau says that “If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however, measured or far away,” he means that a person who is do...