The news we hear, for the most part, is not news to our genius. It is the stalest repetition. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
“Genius is not a retainer to any emperor, or is its material silver, or gold, or marble, except to a trifling extent.” — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Every wild apple shrub excites our expectation thus, somewhat as every wild child. It is, perhaps, a prince in disguise. What a… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
It gets laughed at because it is a small town, I know, but nevertheless it is a place where great men may… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
We admire Chaucer for his sturdy English wit.... But though it is full of good sense and humanity, it is not transcendent… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The man of genius, like a dog with a bone, or the slave who has swallowed a diamond, or a patient with… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
A man cannot wheedle nor overawe his Genius. It requires to be conciliated by nobler conduct than the world demands or can… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Nature is mythical and mystical always, and works with the license and extravagance of genius. She has her luxurious and florid style… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
How full of the creative genius is the air in which these [snowflakes] are generated! I should hardly admire them more if… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
In war, in some sense, lies the very genius of law. It is law creative and active; it is the first principle… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I did not go to Boston, for with regard to that place I sympathize with one of my neighbors, an old man,… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
If you would get money as a writer or lecturer, you must be popular, which is to go down perpendicularly.... You are… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The Artist is he who detects and applies the law from observation of the works of Genius, whether of man or Nature.… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Concord is just as idiotic as ever in relation to the spirits and their knockings. Most people here believe in a spiritual… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
No man with a genius for legislation has appeared in America. They are rare in the history of the world. There are… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Follow your genius closely enough, and it will not fail to show you a fresh prospect every hour. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
It is not every man who can be a Christian, even in a very moderate sense, whatever education you give him. It… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
For a companion, I require one who will make an equal demand on me with my own genius. Such a one will… — 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
This is one of those instances in which the individual genius is found to consent, as indeed it always does, at last,… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Genius is a light which makes the darkness visible, like the lightning's flash, which perchance shatters the temple of knowledge itself. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
No doubt Carlyle has a propensity to exaggerate the heroic in history, that is, he creates you an ideal hero rather than… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
It takes a man of genius to travel in his own country, in his native village; to make any progress between his… — 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
