“In my opinion, the sun was made to light worthier toil than this.” — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I do not wish to be any more busy with my hands than is necessary. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Verily, chemistry is not a splitting of hairs when you have got half a dozen raw Irishmen in the laboratory. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Though the hen should sit all day, she could lay only one egg, and, besides, would not have picked up materials for… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Those services which the community will most readily pay for, it is most disagreeable to render. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Surely the writer is to address a world of laborers, and such therefore must be his own discipline. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
But men labor under a mistake. The better part of the man is soon plowed into the soil for compost. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
We perceive that the schemers return again and again to common sense and labor. Such is the evidence of history. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
A man had better starve at once than lose his innocence in the process of getting his bread. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
“Some are 'industrious' and appear to love labor for its own sake, or perhaps because it keeps them out of worse mischief;… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
To him whose elastic and vigorous thought keeps pace with the sun, the day is a perpetual morning. It matters not what… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
If labor mainly, or to any considerable degree, serves the purpose of a police, to keep men out of mischief, it indicates… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
This world is a place of business. What an infinite bustle! I am awaked almost every night by the panting of the… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Whose are the truly labored sentences? From the weak and flimsy periods of the politician and literary man, we are glad to… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Steady labor with the hands, which engrosses the attention also, is unquestionably the best method of removing palaver and sentimentality out of… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
That so many are ready to live by luck, and so get the means of commanding the labor of others less lucky,… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The gold-digger is the enemy of the honest laborer, whatever checks and compensations there may be. It is not enough to tell… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Men and boys are learning all kinds of trades but how to make men of themselves. They learn to make houses; but… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Life consists with Wildness. The most alive is the wildest. Not yet subdued to man, its presence refreshes him. One who pressed… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The millions are awake enough for physical labor; but only one in a million is awake enough for effective intellectual exertion, only… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
We are often struck by the force and precision of style to which hard-working men, unpracticed in writing, easily attain when required… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I see young men, my townsmen, whose misfortune it is to have inherited farms, houses, barns, cattle, and farming tools; for these… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Some are "industrious," and appear to love labor for its own sake, or perhaps because it keeps them out of worse mischief;… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
How we shall earn our bread is a grave question; yet it is a sweet and inviting question. Let us not shirk… — 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
The principal, the only, thing a man makes, is his condition of fate. Though commonly he does not know it, nor put… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
“The ways by which you may get money almost without exception lead downward. To have done anything by which you earned money… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
One can hardly imagine a more healthful employment, or one more favorable to contemplation and the observation of nature. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Cold and hunger seem more friendly to my nature than those methods which men have adopted and advise to ward them off. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
We 've wholly forgotten how to die. But be sure you do die nevertheless. Do your work, and finish it. If you… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
If I choose to devote myself to certain labors which yield more real profit, though but little money, they may be inclined… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I have found it to be the most serious objection to coarse labors long continued, that they compelled me to eat and… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
It is the art of mankind to polish the world, and every one who works is scrubbing in some part. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The really efficient laborer will be found not to crowd his day with work, but will saunter to his task surrounded by… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The necessity of labor and conversation with many men and things to the scholar is rarely well remembered. — 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
