Henry David Thoreau quotes - page 8

I should not talk so much about myself if there were anybody else whom I knew as well. (Henry David Thoreau)
Time is but the stream I go afishin in. I drink at it, but while I drink I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. It's thin current slides away, but eternity remains. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
Man flows at once to God when the channel of purity is open. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
Sphere Music - Some sounds seem to reverberate along the plain, and then settle to earth again like dust; such are Noise, Discord, Jargon. But such only as spring heavenward, and I may catch from steeples and hilltops in their upward course, which are the more refined parts of the former, are the true sphere music - pure, unmixed music - in which no wail mingles. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
Who looks in the sun will see no light else; but also he will see no shadow. Our life revolves unceasingly, but the centre is ever the same, and the wise will regard only the seasons of the soul. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
We are as much as we see. Faith is sight and knowledge. The hands only serve the eyes. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
The same law that shapes the earth-star shapes the snow-star. As surely as the petals of a flower are fixed, each of these countless snow-stars comes whirling to earth...these glorious spangles, the sweeping of heaven's floor. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
The only government that I recognize--and it matters not how few are at the head of it, or how small its army--is that power thatestablishes justice in the land, never that which establishes injustice. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
There is an incessant influx of novelty into the world, and yet we tolerate incredible dullness. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
Fire is the most tolerable third party. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
A slight sound at evening lifts me up by the ears, and makes life seem inexpressibly serene and grand. It may be Uranus, or it may be in the shutter. (Henry David Thoreau)
Nothing is so much to be feared as fear. Atheism may comparatively be popular with God himself. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
We are apt to imagine that this hubbub of Philosophy, Literature, and Religion, which is heard in pulpits, lyceums, and parlors, vibrates through the universe, and is as catholic a sound as the creaking of the earth's axle. But if a man sleeps soundly, he will forget it all between sunset and dawn. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
Every poet has trembled on the verge of science. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
Where there is a lull of truth, an institution springs up. But the truth blows right on over it, nevertheless, and at length blows it down. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
Live in each season as it passes breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life. Aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
What does education often do It makes a straight-cut ditch of a free, meandering brook. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
A gun gives you the body, not the bird. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
No man ever followed his genius til it misled him. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
My desire for knowledge is intermittent; but my desire to bathe my head in atmospheres unknown to my feet is perennial and constant. The highest that we can attain to is not Knowledge, but Sympathy with Intelligence. I do not know that this higher knowledge amounts to anything more definite than a novel and grand surprise on a sudden revelation of the insufficiency of all that we called Knowledge before - a discovery that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in our philosophy. (Henry David Thoreau)
I take it for granted, when I am invited to lecture anywhere, - for I have had a little experience in that business, - that there is a desire to hear what I think on some subject, though I may be the greatest fool in the country, - and not that I should say pleasant things merely, or such as the audience will assent to; and I resolve, accordingly, that I will give them a strong dose of myself. They have sent for me, and engaged to pay for me, and I am determined that they shall have me, though I bore them beyond all precedent. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
The vessel, though her masts be firm, Beneath her copper bears a worm. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
My life has been the poem I would have writ, But I could not both live and utter it. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
When a sixth of the population of a nation which has undertaken to be the refuge of liberty are slaves, and a whole country is unjustly overrun and conquered by a foreign army, and subjected to military law, I think that it is not too soon for honest men to rebel and revolutionize. What makes this duty the more urgent is the fact that the country so overrun is not our own, but ours is the invading army. View quote
Henry David Thoreau