Only what is thought, said, or done at a certain rare coincidence is good. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
To have done anything just for money is to have been truly idle. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
If you can speak what you will never hear, if you can write what you will never read, you have done rare… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
When a noble deed is done, who is likely to appreciate it? They who are noble themselves. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
A man's whole life is taxed for the least thing well done. It is its net result. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I cannot fish without falling a little in self-respect...always when I have done I feel it would have been better if I… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Each reader discovers for himself that, with respect to the simpler features of nature, succeeding poets have done little else than copy… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
As naturally as the oak bears an acorn and the vine a gourd, man bears a poem, either spoken or done. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
For it matters not how small the beginning may seem to be: what is once well done is done forever. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
For it matters not how small the beginning may seem to be: what is once done well is done forever. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The incessant anxiety and strain of some is a well-nigh incurable form of disease. We are made to exaggerate the importance of… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Poetry is the only life got, the only work done, the only pure product and free labor of man, performed only when… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I sometimes despair of getting anything quite simple and honest done in this world by the help of men. They would have… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The character inherent in the American people has done all that has been accomplished; and it would have done somewhat more, if… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
If the tax-gatherer, or any other public officer, asks me, as one has done, "But what shall I do?" my answer is,… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I noticed, as I had done before, that there was a lull among the mosquitoes about midnight, and that they began again… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
To meet the objections of some inveterate cavillers, I may as well state, that if I dined out occasionally, as I always… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Yet poetry, though the last and finest result, is a natural fruit. As naturally as the oak bears an acorn, and the… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
How we shall earn our bread is a grave question; yet it is a sweet and inviting question. Let us not shirk… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The Jesuits were quite balked by those Indians who, being burned at the stake, suggested new modes of tortures to their tormentors.… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The principal, the only, thing a man makes, is his condition of fate. Though commonly he does not know it, nor put… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I do not remember anything which Confucius has said directly respecting man's "origin, purpose, and destiny." He was more practical than that.… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The poet is no tender slip of fairy stock, who requires peculiar institutions and edicts for his defense, but the toughest son… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I know this well, that if one thousand, if one hundred, if ten men whom I could name,--if ten honest men only,--ay,… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I have made a very rude translation of the Seven against Thebes, and Pindar too I have looked at, and wish he… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Be assured that every man's success is in proportion to his average ability. The meadow flowers spring and bloom where the watersannually… — 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
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
This fair homestead has fallen to us, and how little have we done to improve it, how little have we cleared and… — 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
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
“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
“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
“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
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
A traveler who looks at things with an impartial eye may see what the oldest inhabitant has not observed. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share
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
I had three chairs in my house; one for solitude, two for friendship, three for society. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share
The still youthful energies of the globe have only to be directed in their proper channel. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share
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
The lumberers rarely trouble themselves to put out their fires, such is the dampness of the primitive forest; and this is one cause, no… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share
“When he has obtained those things which are necessary to life, there is another alternative than to obtain the superfluities; and that is, to… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share
Wealth is measured by the level of experience in all aspects of life — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share
