Woods Quotes by Henry David Thoreau

A town is saved, not more by the righteous men in it, than by the woods and swamps that surround it.

— Henry David Thoreau

I turned my face more exclusively than ever to the woods, where I was better known.

— Henry David Thoreau

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately...

— Henry David Thoreau

I took a walk in the woods and came out taller than the trees.

— Henry David Thoreau

He who cuts down woods beyond a certain limit exterminates birds.

— Henry David Thoreau

It is darker in the woods, even in common nights, than most suppose.

— Henry David Thoreau

It is remarkable how many creatures live wild and free though secret in the woods ...

— Henry David Thoreau

Every man looks at his wood-pile with a kind of affection.

— Henry David Thoreau

Then at night the general stillness is more impressive than any sound, but occasionally you hear the note of an owl farther…

— Henry David Thoreau

I left the woods for as good a reason as I went there. Perhaps it seemed to me that I had several…

— Henry David Thoreau

When I consider how, after sunset, the stars come out gradually in troops from behind the hills and woods, I confess that…

— Henry David Thoreau

There is reason in the distinction of civil and uncivil. The manners are sometimes so rough a rind that we doubt whether…

— Henry David Thoreau

For in the wood these golden days Some leaf obeys its Maker's call. And through their hollow aisles it plays With delicate…

— Henry David Thoreau

In my walks, I would fain return to my senses. What business have I in the woods if I am thinking of…

— Henry David Thoreau

A tanned skin is something more than respectable, and perhaps olive is a fitter color than white for a man,--a denizen of…

— Henry David Thoreau

A familiar name cannot make a man less strange to me. It may be given to a savage who retains in secret…

— Henry David Thoreau

The indescribable innocence and beneficence of Nature-of sun and wind and rain, of summer and winter-such health, such cheer, they afford forever!…

— Henry David Thoreau

But, on more accounts than one, I had had enough of moose-hunting. I had not come to the woods for this purpose,…

— Henry David Thoreau

Of course it is of no use to direct our steps to the woods, if they do not carry us thither. I…

— Henry David Thoreau

Making a logging-road in the Maine woods is called "swamping" it, and they who do the work are called "swampers." I now…

— Henry David Thoreau

That devilish Iron Horse, whose ear-rending neigh is heard throughout the town, has muddied the Boiling Spring with his foot, and he…

— Henry David Thoreau

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

I was never molested by any person but those who represented the State. I had no lock nor bolt but for the…

— Henry David Thoreau

I have heard of a man lost in the woods and dying of famine and exhaustion at the foot of a tree,…

— Henry David Thoreau

East of my bean-field, across the road, lived Cato Ingraham, slave of Duncan Ingraham, Esquire, gentleman, of Concord village, whobuilt his slave…

— Henry David Thoreau

The era of wild apples will soon be over. I wander through old orchards of great extent, now all gone to decay,…

— Henry David Thoreau

To preserve wild animals implies generally the creation of a forest for them to dwell in or resort to. So it is…

— Henry David Thoreau

“When I consider that the nobler animal have been exterminated here - the cougar, the panther, lynx, wolverine, wolf, bear, moose, dear,…

— Henry David Thoreau

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if…

— Henry David Thoreau

The wilderness is near as well as dear to every man. Even the oldest villages are indebted to the border of wild…

— Henry David Thoreau

As I walked in the woods to see the birds and squirrels, so I walked in the village to see the men…

— Henry David Thoreau

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

I am alarmed when it happens that I have walked a mile into the woods bodily, without getting there in spirit.

— Henry David Thoreau

It is a surprising and memorable, as well as valuable experience, to be lost in the woods any time.

— Henry David Thoreau

You may tell by looking at any twig of the forest, ay, at your very wood-pile, whether its winter is past or…

— Henry David Thoreau

I wished only to be set down in Canada, and take one honest walk there as I might in Concord woods of…

— Henry David Thoreau

Can there be any greater reproach than an idle learning? Learn to split wood, at least.

— Henry David Thoreau

What is sour in the house a bracing walk in the woods makes sweet.

— Henry David Thoreau

When I would re-create myself, I seek the darkest wood, the thickest and most interminable and to the citizen, most dismal, swamp.…

— Henry David Thoreau

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if…

— Henry David Thoreau