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
But it is fit that the Past should be dark; though the darkness is not so much a quality of the past… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Indeed, the Englishman's history of New England commences only when it ceases to be New France. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Books of natural history make the most cheerful winter reading. I read in Audubon with a thrill of delight, when the snow… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The gods are partial to no era, but steadily shines their light in the heavens, while the eye of the beholder is… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
To some extent, mythology is only the most ancient history and biography. So far from being false or fabulous in the common… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Certainly there is not the fight recorded in Concord history, at least, if in the history of America, that will bear a… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
We perceive that the schemers return again and again to common sense and labor. Such is the evidence of history. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Such were garrulous and noisy eras, which no longer yield any sound, but the Grecian or silent and melodious era is ever… — 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
There is always some accident in the best things, whether thoughts or expressions or deeds. The memorable thought, the happy expression, the… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
In how few words, for instance, the Greeks would have told the story of Abelard and Heloise, making but a sentence of… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
“A traveller! I love his title. A traveler is to be reverenced as such. His profession is the best symbol of our… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Let us not underrate the value of a fact; it will one day flower in a truth. It is astonishing how few… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Books are the carriers of civilization. Without books, history is silent. — 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
All the events which make the annals of the nations are but the shadows of our private experiences. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Ancient history has an air of antiquity. It should be more modern. It is written as if the specator should be thinking… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Most events recorded in history are more remarkable than important, like eclipses of the sun and moon, by which all are attracted,but… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Critical acumen is exerted in vain to uncover the past; the past cannot be presented; we cannot know what we are not.… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
It has been so written, for the most part, that the times it describes are with remarkable propriety called dark ages. They… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Men seem anxious to accomplish an orderly retreat through the centuries, earnestly rebuilding the works behind them, as they are battered down… — 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
