Is it not possible that an individual may be right and a government wrong? Are laws to be enforced simply because they… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Children, who play life, discern its true law and relations more clearly than men, who fail to live it worthily, but who… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
All the moral laws are readily translated into natural philosophy, for often we have only to restore the primitive meaning of thewords… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
When a sixth of the population of a nation which has undertaken to be the refuge of liberty are slaves, and a… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Surely the fates are forever kind, though Nature's laws are more immutable than any despot's, yet to man's daily life they rarelyseem… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
In 1694 a law was passed "that every settler who deserted a town for fear of the Indians should forfeit all his… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Observation is so wide awake, and facts are being so rapidly added to the sum of human experience, that it appears as… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The law will never make a man free; it is men who have got to make the law free. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
If we knew all the laws of Nature, we should need only fact, or the description of one actual phenomenon, to infer… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The man who takes the liberty to live is superior to all the laws, by virtue of his relation to the lawmaker. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I have not read far in the statutes of this Commonwealth. It is not profitable reading. They do not always say what… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Death is beautiful when seen to be a law, and not an accident. It is as common as life. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Seen from a lower point of view, the Constitution, with all its faults, is very good; the law and the courts are… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Perchance, coming generations will not abide the dissolution of the globe, but, availing themselves of future inventions in aerial locomotion, and the… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The life of a good man will hardly improve us more than the life of a freebooter, for the inevitable laws appear… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The process of discovery is very simple. An unwearied and systematic application of known laws to nature, causes the unknown to reveal… — 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
A true Friendship is as wise as it is tender. The parties to it yield implicitly to the guidance of their love,… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The philosopher's conception of things will, above all, be truer than other men's, and his philosophy will subordinate all the circumstances of… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Why the jailer does not leave open his prison doors,--why the judge does not dismiss his case,--why the preacher does not dismisshis… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
f the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of government, let it go, let it go; perchance it… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The same law that shapes the earth-star shapes the snow-star. As surely as the petals of a flower are fixed, each of… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Will mankind never learn that policy is not morality,--that it never secures any moral right, but considers merely what is expedient? chooses… — 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
