Original artwork, not a still
Walden · 1854
There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.
Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
Plenty of people busy themselves fighting the visible symptoms of wrongdoing, Thoreau says. Very few go after the source that keeps producing it. His picture of a thousand people at the branches against one at the root makes that imbalance feel almost comically lopsided.
Context reviewed
