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What Are You Doing Out There?

Story★★★★

Henry David Thoreau once went to jail rather than pay his poll tax to a state that supported slavery. His good friend Ralph Waldo Emerson hurried to visit him in jail and, peering through the bars, exclaimed: “Why, Henry, what are you doing in there?”

Thoreau replied, “No, Ralph, the question is, what are you doing out there?”

Also attributed to: Ralph Waldo Emerson

Henry David Thoreau.

The point

Thoreau jailed for refusing to pay taxes supporting slavery; when Emerson visited asking 'what are you doing in there?' Thoreau replied: 'What are YOU doing out there?'

Audience
Adults
Tone
Convicting · Challenging
To tell aloud
under a minute · 58 words
Subjects
CourageJusticeSlaveryPrincipleConvictionIntegrityCivil Disobedience

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