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Henry David Thoreau’s tiny cabin is something that everybody should learn about at some point, especially if you’re into tiny houses because as you probably know, Henry David Thoreau has always been an inspiring role model for those of us seeking to simplify our lives.
Here you’ll see what his tiny cabin was like in case you ever wondered. In addition, I’d also like to share some of my favorite quotes from Thoreau. Plus, how you can build a Thoreau-like tiny house for around $1,000 thanks to LaMar Alexander. The tiny house was 10′ by 15′ with 8′ high ceilings. Below you’ll get to see how simply Thoreau lived during his time at Walden Pond.
To explore more amazing tiny homes like this, join our Tiny House Newsletter. It’s free.:)
Henry David Thoreau’s Tiny Cabin in the Woods
Image © mgstanton/flickr
A bed, chair, desk, and fireplace. The basics…
Image © Gary Lerude/Flickr
Thoreau Cabin.
Image © Chris Devers/Flickr
Henry David Thoreau
Image © Benjamin D. Maxham (1856)
Video: Henry David Thoreau’s Tiny Cabin and Simple Life at Walden
VIDEO: How to Build Your Own Thoreau-like Tiny House for $1,000
Learn more https://www.instructables.com/id/Thoreau-Off-Grid-Cabin-Design-Under-900/
Quotes on Simplicity by Henry David Thoreau
Our life is frittered away by detail. An honest man has hardly need to count more than his ten fingers, or in extreme cases he may add his ten toes, and lump the rest. 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 thumb nail. In the midst of this chopping sea of civilized life, such are the clouds and storms and quicksands and thousand-and-one items to be allowed for, that a man has to live, if he would not founder and go to the bottom and not make his port at all, by dead reckoning, and he must be a great calculator indeed who succeeds. Simplify, simplify. Instead of three meals a day, if it be necessary eat but one; instead of a hundred dishes, five; and reduce other things in proportion. [Walden]
I do believe in simplicity. It is astonishing as well as sad, how many trivial affairs even the wisest thinks he must attend to in a day; how singular an affair he thinks he must omit. When the mathematician would solve a difficult problem, he first frees the equation of all incumbrances, and reduces it to its simplest terms. So simplify the problem of life, distinguish the necessary and the real. Probe the earth to see where your main roots run. [Thoreau to H.G.O. Blake, 27 March 1848]
What you call bareness and poverty is to me simplicity. God could not be unkind to me if he should try. I love the winter, with its imprisonment and its cold, for it compels the prisoner to try new fields and resources. I love to have the river closed up for a season and a pause put to my boating, to be obliged to get my boat in. I shall launch it again in the spring with so much more pleasure. This is an advantage in point of abstinence and moderation compared with the seaside boating, where the boat ever lies on the shore. I love best to have each thing in its season only, and enjoy doing without it at all other times. It is the greatest of all advantages to enjoy no advantage at all. I find it invariably true, the poorer I am, the richer I am. What you consider my disadvantage, I consider my advantage. While you are pleased to get knowledge and culture in many ways, I am delighted to think that I am getting rid of them. I have never got over my surprise that I should have been born into the most estimable place in all the world, and in the very nick of time, too. [Journal, 5 December 1856]
The savage lives simply through ignorance and idleness or laziness, but the philosopher lives simply through wisdom. [Journal, 1 September 1853]
The rule is to carry as little as possible. [Journal, 22 July 1857]
Do You Have a Favorite Quote from Thoreau?
We’d love for you to share it in the comments below.
Resources
- The Walden Woods Project
- Civil Disobedience
- Walden
- Henry David Thoreau’s Wikipedia page
- How to Build a $1,000 Thoreau Cabin Replica
- $5 Thoreau replica cabin plans
Related: Modern Thoreau-like Tiny Cabin in Italy
If you enjoyed Henry David Thoreau’s tiny cabin in the woods you’ll absolutely LOVE our free daily tiny house newsletter with even more! Thank you!
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. If you purchase through one of our links, we may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.
Alex
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