Walden: Economy Henry Thoreau quote help?

It is helpful to see quotations in context. The entire Thoreau quote is printed below. Since, in Thoreau's view, most men live desperate lives, their sports are also desperate attempts to add meaning. Unless there is something to be gained through personal achievement, sports are pointless. The athletes on the field will find some purpose in their competitions. The hundreds of thousands who watch professional athletes from the stands or on TV would get no credit from Thoreau for their "participation."

  "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation. From the desperate city you go into the desperate country, and have to console yourself with the bravery of minks and muskrats. A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind. There is no play in them, for this comes after work. But it is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things" (1).

  "Consider first how slight a shelter is absolutely necessary. I have seen Penobscot Indians, in this town, living in tents of thin cotton cloth, while the snow was nearly a foot deep around them, and I thought that they would be glad to have it deeper to keep out the wind. . . . I used to see a large box by the railroad, six feet long by three wide, in which the laborers locked up their tools at night; and it suggested to me that every man who was hard pushed might get such a one for a dollar, and, having bored a few auger holes in it, to admit the air at least, get into it when it rained and at night, and hook down the lid, and so have freedom in his love, and in his soul be free" (2).