I once had a sparrow alight upon my shoulder for a moment, while I was hoeing in a village garden, and I… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Is not disease the rule of existence? There is not a lily pad floating on the river but has been riddled by… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
A true poem is distinguished not so much by a felicitous expression, or any thought it suggests, as by the atmosphere which… — 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
The improvements of ages have had but little influence on the essential laws of man's existence: as our skeletons, probably, are not… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
A distinguished clergyman told me that he chose the profession of a clergyman because it afforded the most leisure for literary pursuits.… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
It is remarkable, but on the whole, perhaps, not to be lamented, that the world is so unkind to a new book.… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Books are to be distinguished by the grandeur of their topics even more than by the manner in which they are treated. — 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
