I could not undertake to form a nucleus of an institution for the development of infant minds, where none already existed. It… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
So behave that the odor of your actions may enhance the general sweetness of the atmosphere, that when we behold or scent… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
We waded so gently and reverently, or we pulled together so smoothly, that the fishes of thought were not scared from the… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Every New Englander might easily raise all his own breadstuffs in this land of rye and Indian corn, and not depend on… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I foresee the time when the painter will paint that scene, no longer going to Rome for a subject; the poet will… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Why should Canada, wild and unsettled as it is, impress us as an older country than the States, unless because her institutions… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Ah! I need solitude. I have come forth to this hill at sunset to see the forms of the mountains in the… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The night in prison was novel and interesting enough.... I found that even here there was a history and a gossip which… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
To speak impartially, the best men that I know are not serene, a world in themselves. For the most part, they dwell… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
There is no doubt that the loftiest written wisdom is either rhymed or in some way musically measured,--is, in form as well… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I do not know but thoughts written down thus in a journal might be printed in the same form with greater advantage… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Nature is a greater and more perfect art, the art of God; though, referred to herself, she is genius; and there is… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The earth is not a mere fragment of dead history, stratum upon stratum like the leaves of a book, to be studied… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The true poem is not that which the public read. There is always a poem not printed on paper,... in the poet's… — 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
All expression of truth does at length take this deep ethical form. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
We have heard much about the poetry of mathematics, but very little of it has as yet been sung. The ancients had… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
All sensuality is one, though it takes many forms; all purity is one. It is the same whether a man eat, or… — 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
But labor of the hands, even when pursued to the verge of drudgery, is perhaps never the worst form of idleness. It… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Whether we live by the seaside, or by the lakes and rivers, or on the prarie, it concerns us to attend to… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The dry grasses are not dead for me. A beautiful form has as much life at one season as another. — 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
