American Diogenes - Henry David Thoreau's Living Philosophy

Philosophy’s not about having “subtle thoughts” but about loving wisdom so much that you “live according to its dictates”

Image by Author (composite of Thoreau and Walden)

There is a type of temperament that, when mixed with philosophy, produces a very interesting flowering of the human condition.

Diogenes the Cynic is one that we looked at in a previous episode. The Ancient Roman senator Cato the Younger is another. He became so drenched in Stoic philosophy that he became a…