We could not help contrasting the equanimity of Nature with the bustle and impatience of man. His words and actions presume alwaysa… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Talk of mysteries! — Think of our life in nature, — daily to be shown matter, to come in contact with it,… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The sea-shore is a sort of neutral ground, a most advantageous point from which to contemplate the world…There is naked Nature, inhumanly… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Let a slight snow come and cover the earth, and the tracks of men will show how little the woods and fields… — 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
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
When I go into a museum and see the mummies wrapped in their linen bandages, I see that the lives of men… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Science with its retorts would have put me to sleep; it was the opportunity to be ignorant that I improved. It suggested… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
It is only necessary that man should start a fence that Nature should carry it on and complete it. The farmer cannot… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The poet's, commonly, is not a logger's path, but a woodman's. The logger and pioneer have preceded him, like John the Baptist;… — 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
Most men, it seems to me, do not care for Nature and would sell their share in all her beauty, as long… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
There have been heroes for whom this world seemed expressly prepared, as if creation had at last succeeded; whose daily life was… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
It is in vain to dream of a wildness distant from ourselves. There is none such. It is the bog in our… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The gentle rain which waters my beans and keeps me in the house today is not drear and melancholy, but good for… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Under the one word "house" are included the schoolhouse, the almshouse, the jail, the tavern, the dwellinghouse; and the meanest shed or… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
How insupportable would be the days, if the night with its dews and darkness did not come to restore the drooping world.… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I love to see that Nature is so rife with life that myriads can be afforded to be sacrificed and suffered to… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
“The spruce and cedar on its shores, hung with gray lichens, looked at a distance like the ghosts of trees. Ducks were… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The seeds of the life of fishes are everywhere disseminated, whether the winds waft them, or the waters float them, or the… — 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
“O Prince, our eyes contemplate with admiration and transmit to the soul the wonderful and varied spectacle of this universe. The night… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Only nature has a right to grieve perpetually, for she only is innocent. Soon the ice will melt, and the blackbirds sing… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Let us first be as simple and well as Nature ourselves, dispel the clouds which hang over our brows, and take up… — 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
In an ancient and dead language, any recognition of living nature attracts us. These are such sentences as were written while grass… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Art can never match the luxury and superfluity of Nature. In the former all is seen; it cannot afford concealed wealth, and… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
“We can never have enough of nature. We must be refreshed by the sight of inexhaustible vigor, vast and titanic features, the… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
There is on the earth no institution which Friendship has established; it is not taught by any religion; no scripture contains itsmaxims.… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
“We might try our lives by a thousand simple tests; as, for instance, that the same sun which ripens my beans illumines… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
“The soil, it appears, is suited to the seed, for it has sent its radicle downward, and it may now send its… — 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
“If then, we would indeed restore mankind by truly botanic, magnetic, or natural means, let us first be as simple and well… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I long for wildness, a nature which I cannot put my foot through, woods where the wood thrush forever sings, where the… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Books of natural history aim commonly to be hasty schedules, or inventories of God's property, by some clerk. They do not in… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
“I love even to see the domestic animals reassert their native rights — any evidence that they have not wholly lost their… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Nature confounds her summer distinctions at this season. The heavens seem to be nearer the earth. The elements are less reserved and… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
How to extract its honey from the flower of the world. That is my everyday business. I am as busy as a… — 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
