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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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 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
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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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 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 wrong, with moral questions; and betting naturally accompanies it. The character of the voters is not staked. I cast my vote, perchance, as I think right; but I am not vitally concerned that that right should… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share
“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
