Part one of term paper
I have heard it said that the pen is mightier than the sword, but can mere written words change the course of history? Henry David Thoreau did nothing to directly change the course of history, but his words did influence others who did change the course of history; two notable names that the words of Thoreau influenced are Mahatma Gandhi and ...

Part two of term paper
... interested in natural history, religion, and world literature. Thoreau taught briefly but was dismissed when it became known that he opposed corporal punishment. He and his brother founded their own school based on transcendentalist principles, but he still wanted to be a poet. His dream came true when Ralph Waldo Emerson invited him to come live with them in Concord. In Walden Thoreau wrote, “Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed, and in such desperate enterprises? If a man doe ...