Henry David Thoreau was born in Concord on July 12th, 1817. He attended Harvard.

His close friend was Ralph Waldo Emerson. In 1854, he wrote a book called Walden. He died at age 44 from tuberculosis. He helped runaway slaves escape to Canada. He was a transcendentalist writer. He lived on Walden Pond for two years. He was a pencil maker, teacher, carpenter, and many other things. He wrote in his journal once, It takes a man to make a room silent.

Ralph Waldo Emerson was an essayist, philosopher, and poet. He was born on May 25th, 1803 in Boston. He was a leader of transcendentalism. He attended Harvard also. He was the youngest member of his freshman class at 14 years old. He advocated womens rights and wanted slavery to be abolished. He graduated Harvard in 1821. In 1836, he published his first book. He died on April 27th, 1882. In 1860, he published lectures called The Conduct of Life.

1.Live life to the fullest-Experience what the world has to offer.

2. Thou shalt not conform-You cannot achieve true happiness and peace within yourself if you are only doing something because other people are doing it.

3. Individualism-Think for yourself without the rules that are set by society. 4. Do not worship the material-Dont be materialistic, love the little things in life.

5. Be your own mentor-If you achieve true fullfillment, you can teach yourself and not have to learn from other peoples experiences.

6. Society corrupts an individuals inherent goodness-To better yourself, you must be able to better the lives of people around you. 7. Be one with God, not the church-You dont need religion to guide you.

8. Simplicity-The natural part of the world is the most beautiful part.

9. Moral values-You are able to improve yourself mentally.

10. Nature is sacred-Nature is the most beautiful part of the world.

The element that is most important to me is to Live Life to the Fullest. I believe this is true because life is short, and there are a lot of things to experience in the world. It is important to see the world because there are many different opportunities to make yourself a better person and make other people better. Some people dont even get out of their city or state, and personally I think thats crazy. Maybe money is an issue, or maybe its fear. Either way, I think its very important to see what there is out in the world because there is so much more than what we know.