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Genius Quotes by Henry David Thoreau

41 Genius quotes by Henry David Thoreau

All Genius quotes Henry David Thoreau’s page

Henry David Thoreau describes genius as a quiet, stubborn force that ignores ordinary news. He compares it to a dog with a bone, a slave with a diamond, and to nature’s wild, mystical style. The quotes suggest genius works apart, yet draws power from the natural world.

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Genius is not a retainer to any emperor.

Henry David Thoreau

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What is called genius is the abundance of life and health.

Henry David Thoreau

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No man ever followed his genius till it misled him.

Henry David Thoreau

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You must have a genius for charity as well as for anything else.

Henry David Thoreau

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No man ever followed his genius til it misled him.

Henry David Thoreau

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Nature is full of genius, full of divinity.

Henry David Thoreau

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Follow your genius closely enough, and it will not fail to show you a fresh prospect every hour.

Henry David Thoreau

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“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

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The news we hear, for the most part, is not news to our genius. It is the stalest repetition.

Henry David Thoreau

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The very thrills of genius are disorganizing. The body is never quite acclimated to its atmosphere, but how often, succumbs and goes…

Henry David Thoreau

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But the divinest poem, or the life of a great man, is the severest satire… The greater the genius, the keener the…

Henry David Thoreau

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Nature is full of genius, full of the divinity; so that not a snowflake escapes its fashioning hand.

Henry David Thoreau

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Shall I not have intelligence with the earth? Am I not partly leaves and vegetable mould myself.

Henry David Thoreau

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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

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If one listens to the faintest but constant suggestions of his genius, which are certainly true, he sees not to what extremes,…

Henry David Thoreau

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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

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I was more independent than any farmer in Concord, for I was not anchored to a house or farm, but could follow…

Henry David Thoreau

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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

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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

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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

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The man of genius knows what he is aiming at; nobody else knows. And he alone knows when something comes between him…

Henry David Thoreau

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The generative energy, which, when we are loose, dissipates and makes us unclean, when we are continent invigorates and inspires us. Chastity…

Henry David Thoreau

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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

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The Man of Genius may at the same time be, indeed is commonly, an Artist, but the two are not to be…

Henry David Thoreau

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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

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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

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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

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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

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I confess that I have hitherto indulged very little in philanthropic enterprises… While my townsmen and women are devoted in somany ways…

Henry David Thoreau

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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I have met with but one or two persons in the course of my life who have understood the art of Walking,…

Henry David Thoreau

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I have met with but one or two persons in the course of my life who understood the art of Walking, that…

Henry David Thoreau

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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

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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

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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

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If ever I did a man any goodof course it was something exceptional and insignificant compared with the good or evil which I am…

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Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end.

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“Men say they know many things; But lo! they have taken wings, — The arts and sciences, And a thousand appliances; The wind that…

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I am not afraid of praise, for I have practiced it on myself.

Henry David Thoreau

“All voting is a sort of gaming, like checkers or back gammon, with a slight moral tinge to it, a playing with right and…

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“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…

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As for doing good; that is one of the professions which is full. Moreover I have tried it fairly and, strange as it may…

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A traveler who looks at things with an impartial eye may see what the oldest inhabitant has not observed.

Henry David Thoreau

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

I had three chairs in my house; one for solitude, two for friendship, three for society.

Henry David Thoreau

The still youthful energies of the globe have only to be directed in their proper channel.

Henry David Thoreau

Concord's little arch does not span all our fate, nor is what transpires under it law for the universe.

Henry David Thoreau

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

“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

Wealth is measured by the level of experience in all aspects of life

Henry David Thoreau