Henry David Thoreau quotes - page 5

It is a great art to saunter. (Henry David Thoreau)
A government in which the majority rule in all cases cannot be based on justice, even as far as men understand it. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
We should distrust any enterprise that requires new clothes. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
For many years I was a self-appointed inspector of snowstorms and rainstorms and did my duty faithfully, though I never received payment for it. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
One cannot too soon forget his errors and misdemeanors for to dwell long upon them is to add to the offense, and repentance and sorrow can only be displaced by somewhat better, and which is as free and original as if they had not been. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
Friends... they cherish one another's hopes. They are kind to one another's dreams. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
That virtue we appreciate is as much ours as another s. We see so much only as we possess. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
Let us not underrate the value of a fact it will one day flower into a truth. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
For eighteen hundred years, though perchance I have no right to say it, the New Testament has been written yet where is the legislator who has wisdom and practical talent enough to avail himself of the light which it sheds on the science of legislation. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
When we are unhurried and wise, we perceive that only great and worthy things have any permanent and absolute existence, that petty fears and petty pleasures are but the shadow of the reality. (Henry David Thoreau)
In the long run, men only hit what they aim at. Therefore, though you should fail immediately, you had better aim at something high. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
We are constantly invited to be who we are. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
The church is a sort of hospital for men's souls and as full of quackery as the hospital for their bodies. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
The fate of the country does not depend on how you vote at the polls - the worst man is as strong as the best at that game; it does not depend on what kind of paper you drop into the ballot-box once a year, but on what kind of man you drop from your chamber into the street every morning. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
Talk of mysteries! - Think of our life in nature, - daily to be shown matter, to come in contact with it, - rocks, trees, wind on our cheeks! The solid earth! The actual world! The common sense! Contact! Contact! Who are we? Where are we? View quote
Henry David Thoreau
The Indian...stands free and unconstrained in Nature, is her inhabitant and not her guest, and wears her easily and gracefully. But the civilized man has the habits of the house. His house is a prison. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
It is in vain to dream of a wildness distant from ourselves. There is none such. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
I am not sure but I should betake myself in extremities to the liberal divinities of Greece, rather than to my country's God. Jehovah, though with us he has acquired new attributes, is more absolute and unapproachable, but hardly more divine, than Jove. He is not so much of a gentleman, not so gracious and catholic, he does not exert so intimate and genial an influence on nature, as many a god of the Greeks. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
Whate'er we leave to God, God does And blesses us. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
I hear beyond the range of sound, I see beyond the range of sight, New earths and skies and seas around, And in my day the sun doth pale his light. (Henry David Thoreau)
Every man is the builder of a temple called his body. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
If the machine of government is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
Be true to your work, your word, and your friend. View quote
Henry David Thoreau