The state does not demand justice of its members, but thinks that it succeeds very well with the least degree of it,… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Measure your health by your sympathy with morning and spring. If there is no response in you to the awakening of nature… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I perceive that we inhabitants of New England live this mean life that we do because our vision does not penetrate the… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The millions are awake enough for physical labor; but only one in a million is awake enough for effective intellectual exertion, only… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I cannot but regard it as a kindness in those who have the steering of me that, by the want of pecuniary… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
A true politeness does not result from any hasty and artificial polishing, it is true, but grows naturally in characters of the… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Why does it [government] always crucify Christ, and excommunicate Copernicus and Luther, and pronounce Washington and Franklin rebels? — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
A kitten is so flexible that she is almost double; the hind parts are equivalent to another kitten with which the fore… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The poet is a man who lives at last by watching his moods. An old poet comes at last to watch his… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The man who does not betake himself at once and desperately to sawing is called a loafer, though he may be knocking… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Love is no individual's experience; and though we are imperfect mediums, it does not partake of our imperfection; though we are finite,… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I keep a mountain anchored off eastward a little way, which I ascend in my dreams both awake and asleep. Its broad… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
But the eyes, though they are no sailors, will never be satisfied with any model, however fashionable, which does not answer all… — 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
Christianity only hopes. It has hung its harp on the willows, and cannot sing a song in a strange land. It has… — 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