If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it yourself. Rather than love, than money, than fame,… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
A bore is someone who takes away my solitude and doesn't give me companionship in return. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I would give all the wealth of the world, and all the deeds of all the heroes, for one true vision. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
It is the marriage of the soul with nature that makes the intellect fruitful, and gives birth to imagination — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The imagination, give it the least license, dives deeper and soars higher than Nature goes. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
My spirits infallibly rise in proportion to the outward dreariness. Give me the ocean, the desert, or the wilderness! — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Don't spend your time in drilling soldiers, who may turn out hirelings after all, but give to undrilled peasantry a country to… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
If the alternative is to keep all just men in prison, or give up war and slavery, the State will not hesitate… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
What would we not give for some great poem to read now, which would be in harmony with the scenery,--for if men… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Society is commonly too cheap. We meet at very short intervals, not having had time to acquire any new value for each… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Why the jailer does not leave open his prison doors,--why the judge does not dismiss his case,--why the preacher does not dismisshis… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
It is never too late to give up our prejudices. No way of thinking or doing, however, ancient, can be trusted without… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Be sure that you give the poor the aid they most need. If you give money, spend yourself with it, and do… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
If it is the result of a pure love, there can be nothing sensual in marriage. Chastity is something positive, not negative.… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
In society, in the best institutions of men, it is easy to detect a certain precocity. When we should still be growing… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Some poems are for holidays only. They are polished and sweet, but it is the sweetness of sugar, and not such as… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
It is not every man who can be a Christian, even in a very moderate sense, whatever education you give him. It… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
If a man is rich and strong anywhere, it must be on his native soil. Here I have been these forty years… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Perhaps of all our untamed quadrupeds, the fox has obtained the widest and most familiar reputation… His recent tracks still give variety… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
It is not a man's duty, as a matter of course, to devote himself to the eradication of any, even the most… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
What is the price-current of an honest man and patriot to-day? They hesitate, and they regret, and sometimes they petition; but they… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
In short, all good things are wild and free. There is something in a strain of music, whether produced by an instrument… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Methinks some creeds in vestries and churches do forget the hunter wrapped in furs by the Great Slave Lake, and that the… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
As for my own business, even that kind of surveying which I could do with most satisfaction my employers do not want.… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Men do not fail commonly for want of knowledge, but for want of prudence to give wisdom the preference. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Give me a country where it is the most natural thing in the world for a government that does not understand you… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Give me the old familiar world, post-office and all, with this ever new self, with this infinite expectation and faith, which does… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
When I meet a government which says to me, "Your money or your life," why should I be in haste to give… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
It is impossible to give a soldier a good education without making him a deserter. His natural foe is the government that… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Give me a sentence which no intelligence can understand. There must be a kind of life and palpitation to it, and under… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
This life we live is a strange dream, and I don't believe at all any account men give of it. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Men profess to be lovers of music, but for the most part they give no evidence in their opinions and lives that… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Every day a new picture is painted and framed, held up for half an hour, in such lights as the Great Artist… — 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
