We are double-edged blades, and every time we whet our virtue the return stroke strops our vice. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
What is morality but immemorial custom? Conscience is the chief of conservatives. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
It is not worth the while to let our imperfections disturb us always. The conscience really does not, and ought not to… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
He who is conversant with the supernal powers will not worship these inferior deities of the wind, waves, tide, and sunshine. Butwe… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The study of geometry is a petty and idle exercise of the mind, if it is applied to no larger system than… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resigns his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Any man knows when he is justified, and all the wits in the world cannot enlighten him on that point. The murderer… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The true man of science will know nature better by his finer organization; he will smell, taste, see, hear, feel, better than… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
He is not a true man of science who does not bring some sympathy to his studies, and expect to learn something… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
When a man's conscience and the laws clash, it is his conscience that he must follow. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Mathematics should be mixed not only with physics but with ethics. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The universe seems bankrupt as soon as we begin to discuss the characters of individuals. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
You cannot receive a shock unless you have an electric affinity for that which shocks you. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
It is truly enough said that a corporation has no conscience, but a corporation of conscientious men is a corporation with a… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
A very few, as heroes, patriots, martyrs, reformers in the great sense, and men, serve the state with their conscience also, and… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
“Good writing as well as good acting will be obedience to conscience. There must not be a particle of will or whim… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I have seen some whose consciences, owing undoubtedly to former indulgence, had grown to be as irritable as spoilt children, and at… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
“Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The golden mean in ethics, as in physics, is the centre of the system and that about which all revolve, and though… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
“I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law,… — 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
