Read this passage from​ Walden. What advice does Henry David Thoreau offer those who live in poverty?

Question

“However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names. It is not so bad as you are. It looks poorest when you are richest. The faultfinder will find faults even in paradise. Love your life, poor as it is. You may perhaps have some pleasant, thrilling, glorious hours, even in a poorhouse. The setting sun is reflected from the windows of the almshouse as brightly as from the rich man’s abode; the snow melts before its door as early in the spring. I do not see but a quiet mind may live as contentedly there, and have as cheering thoughts, as in a palace.”

They should work hard to achieve greater things.

They should love life and find the best in it.

They should stop paying taxes in order to get ahead.

They should retire into the woods and live in solitude.

Answer 1

The advice Henry David Thoreau offers to those who live in poverty is that they should love life and find the best in it. He encourages them to embrace their circumstances and find joy and contentment in the simple things, rather than constantly seeking more wealth or material possessions. He believes that a quiet mind can find happiness and fulfillment in any situation, even in a poorhouse.