Henry David Thoreau quotes - page 17

A broad margin of leisure is as beautiful in a man's life as in a book. Haste makes waste, no less in life than in housekeeping. Keep the time, observe the hours of the universe, not of the cars. (Henry David Thoreau)
I was more independent than any farmer in Concord, for I was not anchored to a house or farm, but could follow the bent of my genius, which is a very crooked one, every moment. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
If it is surely the means to the highest end we know, can any work be humble or disgusting? Will it not rather be elevating as a ladder, the means by which we are translated? View quote
Henry David Thoreau
We hear and apprehend only what we already half know. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
To speak practically and as a citizen, unlike those who call themselves no-government men, I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government. Let every man make known what kind of government would command his respect, and that will be one step toward obtaining it. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
Truth is always paradoxical. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
The man who is dissatisfied with himself, what can he do? View quote
Henry David Thoreau
It is pleasant to have been to a place the way a river went. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
Men reverence one another, not yet God. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
I hardly know an intellectual man, even, who is so broad and truly liberal that you can think aloud in his society. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
I am sorry to think that you do not get a man's most effective criticism until you provoke him. Severe truth is expressed with some bitterness. (Henry David Thoreau)
How many things there are concerning which we might well deliberate whether we had better know them. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
I have thought there was some advantage even in death, by which we mingle with the herd of common men. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
In the meanest are all the materials of manhood, only they are not rightly disposed. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
It is too late to be studying Hebrew; it is more important to understand even the slang of today. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
If you would convince a man that he does wrong, do right. But do not care to convince him. Men will believe what they see. Let them see. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
What people say you cannot do, you try and find that you can. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
Amid a world of noisy, shallow actors it is noble to stand aside and say, 'I will simply be. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
I am enjoying existence as much as ever, and regret nothing. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
I was not born to be forced. I will breathe after my own fashion. Let us see who is the strongest. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours ... In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness. (Henry David Thoreau)
I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
And the cost of a thing it will be remembered as the amount of life it requires to be exchanged for it. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
It would be worth the while to look closely into the eye which has been open and seeing at such hours, and in such solitudes, its dull, yellowish, greenish eye. Methinks my own soul must be a bright invisible green. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
What is called politics is comparatively something so superficial and inhuman, that, practically, I have never fairly recognized that it concerns me at all. View quote
Henry David Thoreau