Books must be read as deliberately and reservedly as they were written. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Everything that is printed and bound in a book contains some echo at least of the best that is in literature. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Books are the carriers of civilization. Without books, history is silent. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Books can only reveal us to ourselves, and as often as they do us this service we lay them aside. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
For what are the classics but the noblest thoughts of man? They are the only oracles which are not decayed, and there… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
A truly good book is something as natural, and as unexpectedly and unaccountably fair and perfect, as a wild-flower discovered on the… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
There is always room and occasion enough for a true book on any subject; as there is room for more light the… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Writing your name can lead to writing sentences. And the next thing you'll be doing is writing paragraphs, and then books. And… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
All that are printed and bound are not books; they do not necessarily belong to letters, but are oftener to be ranked… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
It is a relief to read some true book, wherein all are equally dead,--equally alive. I think the best parts of Shakespeare… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The best books are not read even by those who are called good readers. What does our Concord culture amount to? There… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
If men were to be destroyed and the books they have written were to be transmitted to a new race of creatures,… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
We are constituted a good deal like chickens, which, taken from the hen, and put in a basket of cotton in the… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations. Books, the oldest and the best,… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The heroic books, even if printed in the character of our mother tongue, will always be in a language dead to degenerate… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The New Testament is an invaluable book, though I confess to having been slightly prejudiced against it in my very early days… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The newspaper is a Bible which we read every morning and every afternoon, standing and sitting, riding and walking. It is a… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Any man will go considerably out of his way to pick up a silver dollar; but here are golden words, which the… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
To read well, that is, to read true books in a true spirit, is a noble exercise, and one that will tax… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
It is remarkable that, notwithstanding the universal favor with which the New Testament is outwardly received, and even the bigotry with which… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
There are as many strata at different levels of life as there are leaves in a book. When on the higher levels… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The books for young people say a great deal about the selection of Friends; it is because they really have nothing to… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Translate a book a dozen times from one language to another, and what becomes of its style? Most books would be worn… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
It would be worth the while to select our reading, for books are the society we keep; to read only the serenely… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The book exists for us perchance which will explain our miracles and and reveal new ones. The at present unutterable things we… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Paper is cheap, and authors need not now erase one book before they write another. Instead of cultivating the earth for wheat… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
It would be worthy of the age to print together the collected Scriptures or Sacred Writings of the several nations, the Chinese,… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
It is always singular, but encouraging, to meet with common sense in very old books, as the Heetopades of Veeshnoo Sarma; a… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
You may rely on it that you have the best of me in my books, and that I am not worth seeing… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
“A truly good book…teaches me better than to read it. I must soon lay it down and commence living on its hint.… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Our manners have been corrupted by communication with the saints. Our hymn-books resound with a melodious cursing of God and enduring Him… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Indeed, the best books have a use, like sticks and stones, which is above or beside their design, not anticipated in the… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
A healthy man, with steady employment, as wood-chopping at fifty cents a cord, and a camp in the woods, will not be… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
If ever I did a man any goodof course it was something exceptional and insignificant compared with the good or evil which I am… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share
Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share
“Men say they know many things; But lo! they have taken wings, — The arts and sciences, And a thousand appliances; The wind that… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share
“All voting is a sort of gaming, like checkers or back gammon, with a slight moral tinge to it, a playing with right and… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share
“This spending of the best part of one's life earning money in order to enjoy a questionable liberty during the least valuable part of… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share
As for doing good; that is one of the professions which is full. Moreover I have tried it fairly and, strange as it may… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share
A traveler who looks at things with an impartial eye may see what the oldest inhabitant has not observed. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share
In proportion as our inward life fails, we go more constantly and desperately to the post office. You may depend on it, that the… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share
I had three chairs in my house; one for solitude, two for friendship, three for society. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share
The still youthful energies of the globe have only to be directed in their proper channel. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share
Concord's little arch does not span all our fate, nor is what transpires under it law for the universe. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share
The lumberers rarely trouble themselves to put out their fires, such is the dampness of the primitive forest; and this is one cause, no… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share
“When he has obtained those things which are necessary to life, there is another alternative than to obtain the superfluities; and that is, to… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share
Wealth is measured by the level of experience in all aspects of life — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share
