Henry David Thoreau once said, “Things do not change we change,” explaining his Transcendentalist stance on life’s affairs and unknowingly foreshadowing the change he would cause in future revolutionaries. Thoreau was one of the central figures in Transcendentalism, and an ardent believer in the core principles of it. He, along with the other Transcendentalists attempted to understand the life’s relationships through this movement of thought and individualism. Thoreau played a key role in the dissemination of this influential and idealistic 19th century philosophy, as he inspired two of the world’s most well-known and impactful revolutionaries Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. by emphasizing the Transcendentalist principles of free
…show more content…
This ideology, Thoreau explained, is that “under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.” As according to the Unitarian Universalist Association, Thoreau went to jail for not paying he what he believed were unfair taxes. So, affected by his unjust surroundings, the philosopher saw no reason to conform to his society’s laws or way of governing if he believed it was unjust, concurrently creating the philosophy of civil disobedience. Later, according to the Unitarian Universal Association, after Gandhi read Thoreau’s essay “Civil Disobedience” he claimed “it is civil in the sense that it is not criminal. The resistor considers certain laws to be so unjust as to render obedience to them is a dishonor.” Hence, inspired by Thoreau, Gandhi gained his stance on civil disobedience and later applied the philosopher’s Transcendentalist principle of free thought to transform civil disobedience into peaceful protest. This not only impacted Gandhi, but also the entire republic of India, as due to Gandhi’s use of civil disobedience and peaceful protest, India gained its independence from Britain. Moreover, King was also visibly affected by Thoreau’s teachings of free thought, as he claimed, in his renowned “I Have a Dream” speech that “one
This ideology, Thoreau explained, is that “under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.” As according to the Unitarian Universalist Association, Thoreau went to jail for not paying he what he believed were unfair taxes. So, affected by his unjust surroundings, the philosopher saw no reason to conform to his society’s laws or way of governing if he believed it was unjust, concurrently creating the philosophy of civil disobedience. Later, according to the Unitarian Universal Association, after Gandhi read Thoreau’s essay “Civil Disobedience” he claimed “it is civil in the sense that it is not criminal. The resistor considers certain laws to be so unjust as to render obedience to them is a dishonor.” Hence, inspired by Thoreau, Gandhi gained his stance on civil disobedience and later applied the philosopher’s Transcendentalist principle of free thought to transform civil disobedience into peaceful protest. This not only impacted Gandhi, but also the entire republic of India, as due to Gandhi’s use of civil disobedience and peaceful protest, India gained its independence from Britain. Moreover, King was also visibly affected by Thoreau’s teachings of free thought, as he claimed, in his renowned “I Have a Dream” speech that “one