Giving Quotes by Henry David Thoreau

If you give money, spend yourself with it.

— Henry David Thoreau

The highest law gives a thing to him who can use it.

— Henry David Thoreau

Give me the poverty that enjoys true wealth.

— Henry David Thoreau

We need only travel enough to give our intellects an airing.

— Henry David Thoreau

You need not rest your reputation on the dinners you give.

— Henry David Thoreau

Give me a Wildness whose glance no civilization can endure.

— Henry David Thoreau

A gun will give you the body, not the bird

— Henry David Thoreau

My spirits infallibly rise in proportion to the outward dreariness. Give me the ocean, the desert, or the wilderness!

— Henry David Thoreau

Don't spend your time in drilling soldiers, who may turn out hirelings after all, but give to undrilled peasantry a country to…

— Henry David Thoreau

It is the marriage of the soul with nature that makes the intellect fruitful, and gives birth to imagination

— Henry David Thoreau

The imagination, give it the least license, dives deeper and soars higher than Nature goes.

— Henry David Thoreau

A bore is someone who takes away my solitude and doesn't give me companionship in return.

— Henry David Thoreau

I would give all the wealth of the world, and all the deeds of all the heroes, for one true vision.

— Henry David Thoreau

If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it yourself. Rather than love, than money, than fame,…

— Henry David Thoreau

Give me a sentence which no intelligence can understand. There must be a kind of life and palpitation to it, and under…

— Henry David Thoreau

In society, in the best institutions of men, it is easy to detect a certain precocity. When we should still be growing…

— Henry David Thoreau

Some poems are for holidays only. They are polished and sweet, but it is the sweetness of sugar, and not such as…

— Henry David Thoreau

Every day a new picture is painted and framed, held up for half an hour, in such lights as the Great Artist…

— Henry David Thoreau

How wholesome winter is, seen far or near; how good, above all mere sentimental, warm-blooded, short-lived, soft-hearted, moral goodness, commonly so called.…

— Henry David Thoreau

We are double-edged blades, and every time we whet our virtue the return stroke straps our vice. Where is the skillful swordsman…

— Henry David Thoreau

If it is the result of a pure love, there can be nothing sensual in marriage. Chastity is something positive, not negative.…

— Henry David Thoreau

Be sure that you give the poor the aid they most need. If you give money, spend yourself with it, and do…

— Henry David Thoreau

What would we not give for some great poem to read now, which would be in harmony with the scenery,--for if men…

— Henry David Thoreau

Methinks some creeds in vestries and churches do forget the hunter wrapped in furs by the Great Slave Lake, and that the…

— Henry David Thoreau

As for my own business, even that kind of surveying which I could do with most satisfaction my employers do not want.…

— Henry David Thoreau

The true and not despairing Friend will address his Friend in some such terms as these. "I never asked thy leave to…

— Henry David Thoreau

It is not a man's duty, as a matter of course, to devote himself to the eradication of any, even the most…

— Henry David Thoreau

What is the price-current of an honest man and patriot to-day? They hesitate, and they regret, and sometimes they petition; but they…

— Henry David Thoreau

In short, all good things are wild and free. There is something in a strain of music, whether produced by an instrument…

— Henry David Thoreau

Perhaps of all our untamed quadrupeds, the fox has obtained the widest and most familiar reputation… His recent tracks still give variety…

— Henry David Thoreau

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

This life we live is a strange dream, and I don't believe at all any account men give of it.

— Henry David Thoreau

Men profess to be lovers of music, but for the most part they give no evidence in their opinions and lives that…

— Henry David Thoreau

Give me the old familiar world, post-office and all, with this ever new self, with this infinite expectation and faith, which does…

— Henry David Thoreau

When I meet a government which says to me, "Your money or your life," why should I be in haste to give…

— Henry David Thoreau

It is impossible to give a soldier a good education without making him a deserter. His natural foe is the government that…

— Henry David Thoreau

If the alternative is to keep all just men in prison, or give up war and slavery, the State will not hesitate…

— Henry David Thoreau

Men do not fail commonly for want of knowledge, but for want of prudence to give wisdom the preference.

— Henry David Thoreau

Give me a country where it is the most natural thing in the world for a government that does not understand you…

— Henry David Thoreau

Society is commonly too cheap. We meet at very short intervals, not having had time to acquire any new value for each…

— Henry David Thoreau