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
I do not believe there are eight hundred human beings on the globe. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
“Man is an animal who more than any other can adapt himself to all climates and circumstances.” — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I fear that we are such gods or demigods only as fauns and satyrs, the divine allied to beasts, the creatures of… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Men cannot conceive of a state of things so fair that it cannot be realized. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
“I was once reproved by a minister who was driving a poor beast to some meeting-house horse-sheds among the hills of New… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
We are conscious of an animal in us, which awakens in proportion as our higher nature slumbers. It is reptile and sensual,… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The moles nested in my cellar, nibbling every third potato, and making a snug bed even there of some hair left after… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Some have asked if the stock of men could not be improved,--if they could not be bred as cattle. Let Love be… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
No man in America has ever stood up so persistently and effectively for the dignity of human nature, knowing himself for a… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I love man-kind, but I hate the institutions of the dead unkind. Men execute nothing so faithfully as the wills of the… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Men are in the main alike, but they were made several in order that they might be various. If a low use… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
This fond reiteration of the oldest expressions of truth by the latest posterity, content with slightly and religiously retouchingthe old material, is… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
For the most part, we are not where we are, but in a false position. Through an infirmity of our natures, we… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
“I was not born to be forced. I will breathe after my own fashion. Let us see who is the strongest.” — 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
