" (Where I lived, and What I lived for).
Living deliberately does not necessarily make anybody rich in the traditional sense because it aims for something with a more valuable reward. Thoreau instead chose to be rich by making his wants few, and supplying them himself. He wanted to live his life, rather than find out too late that it had, in fact, lived him. One of the beliefs that he wished to enlighten others with was that, majority of people, rather than living a purposeful life, choose lives that are little more than a series of reactions to events and forces outside themselves. He further explains that such lives of majority Americans should not be liberated for it is nothing but a survival. In the chapter "Where I Lived, and What I Lived For," Thoreau expresses his pity toward the Americans who willingly take pain and suffer from labor (or as Thoreau calls it, ˜survival'), thinking that their ˜golden days' awaits in the near future. One example Thoreau uses is railroad, as he mentions "Men think that it is essential that the Nation have commerce, and export ice, and talk through a telegraph, and ride thirty miles an hour.If we do not get out sleepers, and forge rails, and devote days and nights to the work, but go to tinkering upon our lives to improve them, who will build railroads? And if railroads are not built, how shall we get to heaven in season? But if we stay at home and mind our business, who will want railroads? We do not ride on the railroad; it rides upon us. " (Where I lived, and what I loved for).
Thoreau had a belief in nature's sustenance of human lives and therefore was not so much a fan of the idea of possessing extra belongings, so called luxury. To his eyes, every steps of men in pursuit of wealth and happiness seemed meaningless and frustrating, that if he had a chance to hear about the American Dream, he would have had pity for the ones who admired it.
