I find it, as ever, very unprofitable to have much to do with men. It is sowing the wind, but not reaping… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Man cannot afford to be a naturalist, to look at Nature directly, but only with the side of his eye. He must… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Show me a man who feels bitterly toward John Brown, and let me hear what noble verse he can repeat. He'll be… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I should be glad if all the meadows on the earth were left in a wild state, if that were the consequence… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
How few things can a man measure with the tape of his understanding ; How many greater things might he be seeing… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
No man ever stood the lower in my estimation for having a patch in his clothes: yet I am sure that there… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
If we will admit time into our thoughts at all, the mythologies, those vestiges of ancient poems, wrecks of poems, so to… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The journalists think that they cannot say too much in favor of such "improvements" in husbandry; it is a safe theme, like… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Half the walk is but retracing our steps. We should go forth on the shortest walk, perchance, in the spirit of undying… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The wildest dreams of wild men, even, are not the less true, though they may not recommend themselves to the sense which… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The preachers and lecturers deal with men of straw, as they are men of straw themselves. Why, a free-spoken man, of sound… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The animal merely makes a bed, which he warms with his body, in a sheltered place; but man, having discovered fire, boxes… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Yet poetry, though the last and finest result, is a natural fruit. As naturally as the oak bears an acorn, and the… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also in prison, the only house in… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The philosopher's conception of things will, above all, be truer than other men's, and his philosophy will subordinate all the circumstances of… — 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
The church is a sort of hospital for men's souls, and as full of quackery as the hospital for their bodies. Those… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
In Homer and Chaucer there is more of the innocence and serenity of youth than in the more modern and moral poets.… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Many, no doubt, are well disposed, but sluggish by constitution and habit, and they cannot conceive of a man who is actuated… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Statesmen and legislators, standing so completely within the institution, never distinctly and nakedly behold it. They speak of moving society, but they… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Men talk glibly enough about moonshine, as if they knew its qualities very well, and despised them; as owls might talk of… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
That excitement about Kossuth, consider how characteristic, but superficial, it was!--only another kind of politics or dancing. Men were making speeches to… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
We often love to think now of the life of men on beaches,--at least in midsummer, when the weather is serene; their… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
If you would get money as a writer or lecturer, you must be popular, which is to go down perpendicularly… You are… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
In the wildest nature, there is not only the material of the most cultivated life, and a sort of anticipation of the… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
For my own part, I commonly attend more to nature than to man, but any affecting human event may blind our eyes… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I would not have every man nor every part of a man cultivated, any more than I would have every acre of… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I lately met with an old volume from a London bookshop, containing the Greek Minor Poets, and it was a pleasure to… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The aim of the laborer should be, not to get his living, to get "a good job," but to perform well a… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Continued traveling is far from productive. It begins with wearing away the soles of the shoes, and making the feet sore, and… — 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
Exaggeration! was ever any virtue attributed to a man without exaggeration? was ever any vice, without infinite exaggeration? Do we not exaggerate… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
As a man grows older, his ability to sit still and follow indoor occupations increases. He grows vespertinal in his habits as… — 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
An efficient and valuable man does what he can, whether the community pay him for it or not. The inefficient offer their… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The intellect of most men is barren. They neither fertilize or are fertilized. It is the marriage of the soul with nature… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I love Nature partly because she is not man, but a retreat from him. None of his institutions control or pervade her.… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The tops of mountains are among the unfinished parts of the globe, whither it is a slight insult to the gods to… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I have lately got back to that glorious society called Solitude, where we meet our friends continually, and can imagine the outside… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I should say that the useful results of science had accumulated, but that there had been no accumulation of knowledge, strictly speaking,… — 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
