I tried to help him with my experience, telling him that he was one of my nearest neighbors, and that I too, who came a-fishing here, and looked like a loafer, was getting my living like himself; that I lived in a tight, light, and clean house, which hardly cost more than the annual rent of such a ruin as his commonly amounts to; and how, if he chose, he might in a month or two build himself a palace of his own; that I did not use tea, nor coffee, nor butter, nor milk, nor fresh meat, and so did not have to work to get them; again, as I did not work hard, I did not have to eat hard, and it cost me but a trifle for my food; but as he began with tea, and coffee, and butter, and milk, and beef, he had to work hard to pay for them, and when he had worked hard he had to eat hard again to repair the waste of his system — and so it was as broad as it was long, indeed it was broader than it was long, for he was discontented and wasted his life into the bargain; and yet he had rated it as a gain in coming to America, that here you could get tea, and coffee, and meat every day. But the only true America is that country where you are at liberty to pursue such a mode of life as may enable you to do without these, and where the state does not endeavor to compel you to sustain the slavery and war and other superfluous expenses which directly or indirectly result from the use of such things. For I purposely talked to him as if he were a philosopher, or desired to be one. I should be glad if all the meadows on the earth were left in a wild state, if that were the consequence of men's beginning to redeem themselves. A man will not need to study history to find out what is best for his own culture.
噗友Tseng說：
像這樣的想法在梭羅那個時代還是相當前衛的；梭羅告訴他的鄰居說：你從愛爾蘭移民到美國來，不是為了天天可以喝茶喝咖啡，吃奶油吃牛排；而是因為你在此可以有自由去追求或不追求這樣的生活。若是你能像我一樣，選擇不食用這些東西，也許美國政府就能停止奴隸買賣或發動不必要的戰爭。
但是150多年過去，即使大家都知道這個道理，能夠將Tseng的話聽進去的還是少之又少。在台灣，我們也已經有這種選擇的自由，可是大部份的人卻與那個愛爾蘭移民一樣，嘆一口氣，尋思自己是否有辦法如此過活；對他們來說，這樣的日子風險太大，一點保險也沒有。不少人還覺得台灣太自由，而寧願像狗一樣戴上項圈，綁上繩索才敢出門。這些人一點安全感也沒有，再怎麼窮也要跟保險公司買些保險才覺得自己像個人。人類何時才會為了自己的救贖，而任地球上的草地回歸原野？何時才能學會，不為了更高級的茶咖啡、更多汁可口的牛排，放任自己及別人由資本社會所奴役？
