There are certain pursuits which, if not wholly poetic and true, do at least suggest a nobler and finer relation to nature… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
All that is told of the sea has a fabulous sound to an inhabitant of the land and all its products have… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Only what is thought, said, or done at a certain rare coincidence is good. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Left to herself, nature is always more or less civilized, and delights in a certain refinement; but where the axe has encroached… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
At a certain season of our life we are accustomed to consider every spot as the possible site of a house. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
You ask if there is no doctrine of sorrow in my philosophy. Of acute sorrow I suppose that I know comparatively little.… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
There is a certain class of unbelievers who sometimes ask me such questions as, if I think that I can live on… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Why should Canada, wild and unsettled as it is, impress us as an older country than the States, unless because her institutions… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
There is a certain perfection in accident which we never consciously attain. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Ah! I need solitude. I have come forth to this hill at sunset to see the forms of the mountains in the… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Nature, even when she is scant and thin outwardly, satisfies us still by the assurance of a certain generosity at the roots. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
We are conscious of an animal in us, which awakens in proportion as our higher nature slumbers. It is reptile and sensual,… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
In our most trivial walks, we are constantly, though unconsciously, steering like pilots by certain well-known beacons and headlands, and if we… — 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
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
There never was and is not likely soon to be a nation of philosophers, nor am I certain it is desirable that… — 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
He who cuts down woods beyond a certain limit exterminates birds. — 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
A man receives only what he is ready to receive, whether physically or intellectually or morally, as animals conceive at certain seasons… — 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 society, in the best institutions of men, it is easy to detect a certain precocity. When we should still be growing… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Whether we live by the seaside, or by the lakes and rivers, or on the prarie, it concerns us to attend to… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The higher the mountain on which you stand, the less change in the prospect from year to year, from age to age.… — 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
