Books, not which afford us a cowering enjoyment, but in which each thought is of unusual daring; such as an idle man… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
To have done anything just for money is to have been truly idle. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Why should not we, who have renounced the king's authority, have our national preserves, where no villages need be destroyed, in which… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The study of geometry is a petty and idle exercise of the mind, if it is applied to no larger system than… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
He is not a true man of science who does not bring some sympathy to his studies, and expect to learn something… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
How long shall we sit in our porticoes practising idle and musty virtues, which any work would make impertinent? As if one… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Can there be any greater reproach than an idle learning? Learn to split wood, at least. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Have you not budged an inch, then? Such is the daily news. Its facts appear to float in the atmosphere.... We should… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I have met with but one or two persons in the course of my life who understood the art of Walking, that… — 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
