Aim above morality. Be not simply good, be good for something. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
There are nine hundred and ninety-nine patrons of virtue to one virtuous man. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
We cannot well do without our sins; they are the highway of our virtue. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
In dreams we see ourselves naked and acting out our real characters, even more clearly than we see others awake. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
What men call social virtues, good fellowship, is commonly but the virtue of pigs in a litter, which lie close together to… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
“Any nobleness begins at once to refine a man's features, any meanness or sensuality to imbrute them.” — 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
The virtues of a superior man are like the wind; the virtues of a common man are like the grass; the grass,… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The broadest and most prevalent error requires the most disinterested virtue to sustain it. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Our vices always lie in the direction of our virtues, and in their best estate are but plausible imitations of the latter. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Sincerity is a great but rare virtue, and we pardon to it much complaining, and the betrayal of many weaknesses. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
“The fate of the country... does not depend on what kind of paper you drop into the ballot-box once a year, but… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The eye which can appreciate the naked and absolute beauty of a scientific truth is far more rare than that whichis attracted… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
In our daily intercourse with men, our nobler faculties are dormant and suffered to rust. None will pay us the compliment to… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
There may be an excess of cultivation as well as of anything else, until civilization becomes pathetic. A highly cultivated man,--all whose… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The sort of morality which the priests inculcate is a very subtle policy, far finer than the politicians', and the world is… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
He who parades his virtues seldom leads the parade. He who puts up with insult invites injury. Health requires this relaxation, this… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
A friend is one who incessantly pays us the compliment of expecting from us all the virtues, and who can appreciate them… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
All the moral laws are readily translated into natural philosophy, for often we have only to restore the primitive meaning of thewords… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
If I am to be a thoroughfare, I prefer that it be of the mountain brooks, the Parnassian streams, and not the… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
All voting is a sort of gaming, like checkers or backgammon, with a slight moral tinge to it, a playing with right… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I often accuse my finest acquaintances of an immense frivolity; for, while there are manners and compliments we do not meet, we… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Every wild apple shrub excites our expectation thus, somewhat as every wild child. It is, perhaps, a prince in disguise. What a… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The humblest observer who goes to the mines sees and says that gold-digging is of the character of a lottery; the gold… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The heroic books, even if printed in the character of our mother tongue, will always be in a language dead to degenerate… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The more supple vagabond, too, is sure to appear on the least rumor of such a gathering, and the next day to… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Have you not budged an inch, then? Such is the daily news. Its facts appear to float in the atmosphere… We should… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
What is morality but immemorial custom? Conscience is the chief of conservatives. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I never was so rapid in my virtue but my vice kept up with me. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Don't be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life so. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Much of our poetry has the very best manners, but no character. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
How can we expect a harvest of thought who have not had a seedtime of character? — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
What exercise is to the body, employment is to the mind and morals. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
All fables, indeed, have their morals; but the innocent enjoy the story. — 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
