Henry David Thoreau quotes - page 24

We are armed with language adequate to describe each leaf of the filed, but not to describe human character. (Henry David Thoreau)
Truth, Goodness, Beauty - those celestial thrins,Continually are born; e'en now the Universe,With thousand throats, and eke with greener smiles,Its joy confesses at their recent birth. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
Why level downward to our dullest perception always, and praise that as common sense The commonest sense is the sense of men asleep, which they express by snoring. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
When will the world learn that a million men are of no importance compared with one man? View quote
Henry David Thoreau
I live in the present. I only remember the past, and anticipate the future. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
A written word is the choicest of relics. It is something at once more intimate with us and more universal than any other work of art. It is the work of art nearest to life itself. It may be translated into every language, and not only be read but actually breathed from all human lips; -- not be represented on canvas or in marble only, but be carved out of the breath of life itself. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
Our circumstances answer to our expectations and the demand of our natures. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
The man who does not betake himself at once and desperately to sawing is called a loafer, though he may be knocking at the doors of heaven all the while. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
What right have I to grieve, who have not ceased to wonder. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
I have lived some thirty years on this planet, and I have yet to hear the first syllable of valuable or even earnest advice from my seniors. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
The best thing a man can do for his culture when he is rich is to endeavor to carry out those schemes which he entertained when he was poor. (Henry David Thoreau)
It is not all books that are as dull as their readers. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
I wish to suggest that a man may be very industrious, and yet not spend his time well. There is no more fatal blunderer than he who consumes the greater part of his life getting his living. All great enterprises are self-supporting. The poet, for instance, must sustain his body by his poetry, as a steam planing-mill feeds its boilers with the shavings it makes. You must get your living by loving. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
To inherit property is not to be born it is to be still-born, rather. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
Almost any man knows how to earn money, but not one in a million knows how to spend it. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
We live thick and are in each other's way, and stumble over one another, and I think we thus lose some respect for one another. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
Absolutely speaking, Do unto others as you would that they should do unto you is by no means a golden rule, but the best of current silver. An honest man would have but little occasion for it. It is golden not to have any rule at all in such a case. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
I have a deep sympathy with war, it so apes the gait and bearing of the soul. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
The boy gathers materials for a temple, and then when he is thirty, concludes to build a woodshed. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
A name pronounced is the recognition of the individual to whom it belongs. He who can pronounce my name aright, he can call me, and is entitled to my love and service. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
I think that we may safely trust a good deal more than we do. We may waive just so much care of ourselves as we honestly bestow elsewhere. (Henry David Thoreau)
He who is only a traveler learns things at second-hand and by the halves, and is poor authority. We are most interested when science reports what those men already know practically or instinctively, for that alone is a true humanity . . . View quote
Henry David Thoreau
A minority is powerless while it conforms to the majority it is not even a minority then but it is irresistible when it clogs by its whole weight. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
I quietly declare war with the State, after my fashion, though I will still make use and get advantage of her as I can, as is usual in such cases. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
Many of the phenomena of Winter are suggestive of an inexpressible tenderness and fragile delicacy. We are accustomed to hear this king described as a rude and boisterous tyrant but with the gentleness of a lover he adorns the tresses of Summer. View quote
Henry David Thoreau