“A man must find his occasions in himself, it is true. The natural day is very calm, and will hardly reprove his… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
However, our fates at least are social. Our courses do not diverge; but as the web of destiny is woven it is… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
If you would convince a man that he does wrong, do right. Men will believe what they see. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
So behave that the odor of your actions may enhance the general sweetness of the atmosphere, that when we behold or scent… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The mass of men serve the state thus, not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Take Time by the forelock. It is also the safest part to take a serpent by. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
To act collectively is according to the spirit of our institutions. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The Oriental philosophy approaches easily loftier themes than the modern aspires to; and no wonder if it sometimes prattle about them. It… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
How can a man be satisfied to entertain an opinion merely, and enjoy it? Is there any enjoyment in it, if his… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Behave so the aroma of your actions may enhance the general sweetness of the atmosphere. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
In the unbending of the arm to do the deed there is experience worth all the maxims in the world. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The word which is best said came nearest to not being spoken at all, for it is cousin to a deed which… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Even voting for the right is doing nothing for it. It is only expressing to men feebly your desire that it should… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
A wise man will not leave the right to the mercy of chance, nor wish it to prevail through the power of… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
By a conscious effort of the mind we can stand aloof from actions and their consequences; and all things, good and bad,… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I have just been through the process of killing a cistudo for the sake of science; but I cannot excuse myself for… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Great God, I ask thee for no meaner pelf Than that I may not disappoint myself, That in my action I may… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
“There are thousands who are in opinion opposed to slavery and to the war, who yet in effect do nothing to put… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
It is not easy to make our lives respectable by any course of activity. We must repeatedly withdraw into our shells of… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
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
We must heap up a great pile of doing, for a small diameter of being. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Let things alone; let them weigh what they will; let them soar or fall. — 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
A man of rare common sense and directness of speech, as of action; a transcendentalist above all, a man of ideas and… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
From exertion come wisdom and purity; from sloth ignorance and sensuality. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The theories and speculations of men concern us more than their puny accomplishment. It is with a certain coldness and languor that… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
In summer we live out of doors, and have only impulses and feelings, which are all for action, and must wait commonly… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The deeds of love are less questionable than any action of an individual can be, for, it being founded on the rarest… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
But they who are unconcerned about the consequences of their actions are not therefore unconcerned about their actions. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Literary gentlemen, editors, and critics think that they know how to write, because they have studied grammar and rhetoric; but they are… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Action from principle, the perception and the performance of right, changes things and relations; it is essentially revolutionary, and does not consist… — 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 Image
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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
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 Image
A traveler who looks at things with an impartial eye may see what the oldest inhabitant has not observed. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
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 Image
I had three chairs in my house; one for solitude, two for friendship, three for society. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The still youthful energies of the globe have only to be directed in their proper channel. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
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 Image
