A man of rare common sense and directness of speech, as of action; a transcendentalist above all, a man of ideas and… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Men commonly couple with their idea of marriage a slight degree at least of sensuality; but every lover, the world over, believesin… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Your scheme must be the framework of the universe; all other schemes will soon be ruins. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
We cannot see anything until we are possessed with the idea of it, take it into our heads,--and then we can hardly… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
We find it difficult to choose our direction because it does not yet exist distinctly in our idea. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
New ideas come into this world somewhat like falling meteors, with a flash and an explosion. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The past is only so heroic as we see it. It is the canvas on which our idea of heroism is painted,… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
We do not associate the idea of antiquity with the ocean, nor wonder how it looked a thousand years ago, as we… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
True, there are architects so called in this country, and I have heard of one at least possessed with the idea of… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The universe constantly and obediently answers to our conceptions; whether we travel fast or slow, the track is laid for us. Let… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I think it would be worth the while to introduce a school of children to such [an oak grove], that they may… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The customs of some savage nations might, perchance, be profitably imitated by us, for they at least go through the semblance of… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
A journal is a repository for all those fragmentary ideas and odd scraps of information that might otherwise be lost and which… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Men talk glibly enough about moonshine, as if they knew its qualities very well, and despised them; as owls might talk of… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
It is one of the signs of the times. We confess that we have risen from reading this book with enlarged ideas,… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The principal, the only, thing a man makes, is his condition of fate. Though commonly he does not know it, nor put… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I have not yet learned to live, that I can see, and I fear that I shall not very soon. I find,… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
If you take this life to be simply what old religious folks pretend (I mean the effete, gone to seed in a… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The true poem is not that which the public read. There is always a poem not printed on paper,... in the poet's… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
How insupportable would be the days, if the night with its dews and darkness did not come to restore the drooping world.… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
It is best to lay our plans widely in youth, for then land is cheap, and it is but too easy to… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The front aspect of great thoughts can only be enjoyed by those who stand on the side whence they arrive. — 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
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
“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
“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
“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
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
A traveler who looks at things with an impartial eye may see what the oldest inhabitant has not observed. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share
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
I had three chairs in my house; one for solitude, two for friendship, three for society. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share
The still youthful energies of the globe have only to be directed in their proper channel. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share
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
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 Copy Share
“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 Copy Share
Wealth is measured by the level of experience in all aspects of life — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share
![“I think it would be worth the while to introduce a school of children to such [an oak grove], that they may get an idea of the primitive oaks before they are all gone, instead of hiring botanists to lecture to them when it is too late.” quote by Henry David Thoreau](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/bfc/henry-david-thoreau-20_children_i-think-it-would-be-worth-the-while-to-i_2840560.jpg)
