text: Thoreau left the woods because he felt like he spent too much time lamenting the world's problems and not enough fixing them.\n\nBackground info:  Emerson was Thoureau's hero.  Emerson taught everything that Thoreau believed (mainly Transcendentalism and a mix b/w anarchy and true communism-not Chinese communism). However, Thoureau discovered that Emerson was a hipocrite- he didn't practice what he preached- and he (Thoreau) decided that he didn't want to be known as a hipocrite.  Unfortunately, Thoureau's circle of influence was much smaller than Emerson's, so he didn't do a whole lot to change the world. \n\nThoreou wanted to live in the woods because he wanted to live "deliberately" and simply. Here is a quote from his essay "Where I Lived and What I Lived For" :\n     "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived."\n\nI hope this helped- I'm studying Thoreau right now too- so I'm not exactly an expert, you should try reading "The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail"- it will either make things clearer for you, or confuse you even more.