Henry David Thoreau quotes - page 20

A man's interest in a single bluebird is worth more than a complete but dry list of the fauna and flora of a town. (Henry David Thoreau)
My books I'd fain cast off, I cannot read, 'Twixt every page my thoughts go stray at large Down in the meadow, where is richer feed, And will not mind to hit their proper targe. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
She with one breath attunes the spheres, And also my poor human heart. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
It is remarkable, that almost all speakers and writers feel it to be incumbent on them, sooner or later, to prove or to acknowledge the personality of God. ... In reading a work on agriculture, we have to skip the author's moral reflections, and the words "Providence" and "He" scattered along the page, to come at the profitable level of what he has to say. What he calls his religion is for the most part offensive to the nostrils. ... There is more religion in men's science than there is science in their religion. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
The ways by which you may get money almost without exception lead downward. To have done anything by which you earned money merely is to have been truly idle or worse. If the laborer gets no more than the wages which his employer pays him, he is cheated, he cheats himself. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
We may well be ashamed to tell what things we have read or heard in our day. I do not know why my news should be so trivial, - considering what one's dreams and expectations are, why the developments should be so paltry. The news we hear, for the most part, is not news to our genius. It is the stalest repetition. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
It is desirable that a man live in all respects so simply and preparedly that if an enemy take the town... he can walk out the gate empty-handed and without anxiety. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
We are eager to tunnel under the Atlantic and bring the Old World some weeks nearer to the New but perchance the first news that will leak through into the broad, flapping American ear will be that the Princess Adelaide has the whooping cough. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
The character inherent in the American people has done all that has been accomplished and it would have done somewhat more, if the government had not sometimes got in its way. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for law, so much as a respect for right. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
All good things are cheap all bad are very dear. (Henry David Thoreau)
I hear many condemn these men Founding Fathers because they were so few. When were the good and the brave ever in a majority. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
As the truest society approaches always nearer to solitude, so the most excellent speech finally falls into silence. Silence is audible to all men, at all times, and in all places.”. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
I have a great deal of company in my house; especially in the morning, when nobody calls. Let me suggest a few comparisons, that some one may convey an idea of my situation. I am no more lonely than the loon in the pond that laughs so loud, or than Walden Pond itself. What company has that lonely lake, I pray? And yet it has not the blue devils, but the blue angels in it, in the azure tint of its waters. The sun is alone, except in thick weather, when there sometimes appear to be two, but one is a mock sun. God is alone - but the devil, he is far from being alone; he sees a great deal of company; he is legion. I am no more lonely than a single mullein or dandelion in a pasture, or a bean leaf, or sorrel, or a horse-fly, or a bumblebee. I am no more lonely than the Mill Brook, or a weathercock, or the north star, or the south wind, or an April shower, or a January thaw, or the first spider in a new house. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
Is it a freedom to be slaves, or a freedom to be free, of which we boast? We are a nation of politicians, concerned about the outmost defences only of freedom. It is our children's children who may perchance be really free. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
I find it so difficult to dispose of the few facts which to me are significant, that I hesitate to burden my attention with those which are insignificant, which only a divine mind could illustrate. Such is, for the most part, the news in newspapers and conversation. It is important to preserve the mind's chastity in this respect. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
Our whole life is startlingly moral. There is never an instant's truce between virtue and vice. Goodness is the only investment that never fails. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
The New Testament is an invaluable book, though I confess to having been slightly prejudiced against it in my very early days by the church and the Sabbath school, so that it seemed, before I read it, to be the yellowest book in the catalogue. Yet I early escaped from their meshes. It was hard to get the commentaries out of one's head and taste its true flavor. - I think that Pilgrim's Progress is the best sermon which has been preached from this text; almost all other sermons that I have heard, or heard of, have been but poor imitations of this. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
Men and boys are learning all kinds of trades but how to make men of themselves. They learn to make houses; but they are not so well housed, they are not so contented in their houses, as the woodchucks in their holes. What is the use of a house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on? View quote
Henry David Thoreau
Let nothing come between you and the light. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
When it's time to die, let us not discover that we have never lived. (Henry David Thoreau)
City life is millions of people being lonesome together. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
Do not despair of your life. You have force enough to overcome your obstacles. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
It is the marriage of the soul with Nature that makes the intellect fruitful, and gives birth to imagination. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
There is more religion in men's science, than there is science in their religion. View quote
Henry David Thoreau