It would be well, perhaps, if we were to spend more of our days and nights without any obstruction between us and… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Perhaps anxious politicians may prove that only seventeen white men and five negroes were concerned in the late enterprise; but their very… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
In a thousand apparently humble ways men busy themselves to make some right take the place of some wrong,--if it is only… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I could lecture on dry oak leaves; I could, but who would hear me? If I were to try it on any… — 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
If words were invented to conceal thought, newspapers are a great improvement of a bad invention — 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
“What avails it that another loves you, if he does not understand you? Such love is a curse.” — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
If the fairest features of the landscape are to be named after men, let them be the noblest and worthiest men alone. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
It is after we get home that we really go over the mountain, if ever. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The man who thrusts his manners upon me does as if he were to insist on introducing me to his cabinet of… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
We love to see any redness in the vegetation of the temperate zone. It is the color of colors. This plant speaks… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Only nature has a right to grieve perpetually, for she only is innocent. Soon the ice will melt, and the blackbirds sing… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
If all were as it seems, and men made the elements their servants for noble ends! — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
To speak or do anything that shall concern mankind, one must speak and act as if well, or from that grain of… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
What a pity if we do not live this short time according to the laws of the long time,--the eternal laws! — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
If the tax-gatherer, or any other public officer, asks me, as one has done, "But what shall I do?" my answer is,… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Nature would not appear so rich, the profusion so rich, if we knew a use for everything. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I have lately got back to that glorious society called Solitude, where we meet our friends continually, and can imagine the outside… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Every man will be a poet if he can; otherwise a philosopher or man of science. This proves the superiority of the… — 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
. . . I was rich, if not in money, in sunny hours and summer days. . . . — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
In my walks, I would fain return to my senses. What business have I in the woods if I am thinking of… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Shams and delusions are esteemed for soundest truths, while reality is fabulous. If men would steadily observe realities only, and not allow… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
If there is nothing new on the earth, still the traveler always has a resource in the skies. They are constantly turning… — 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
