Law never made men a whit more just; and, by means of their respect for it, even the well-disposed are daily made… — 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
“Visit the Navy-Yard, and behold a marine, such a man as an American government can make, or such as it can make… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I must conclude that Conscience, if that be the name of it, was not given us for no purpose, or for a… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
“I think that we should be men first and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law,… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
It is not for a man to put himself in such an attitude to society, but to maintain himself in whatever attitude… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Always the laws of light are the same, but the modes and degrees of seeing vary. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Whoever can discern truth has received his commission from a higher source than the chiefest justice in the world who can discernonly… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
There is a higher law affecting our relation to pines as well as to men. A pine cut down, a dead pine,… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will… — 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
What wisdom, what warning can prevail against gladness? There is no law so strong that a little gladness may not transgress. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The Man of Genius may at the same time be, indeed is commonly, an Artist, but the two are not to be… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for law, so much as a respect for right. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
There is something servile in the habit of seeking after a law which we may obey. We may study the laws of… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The whole body of what is now called moral or ethical truth existed in the golden age as abstract science. Or, if… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The improvements of ages have had but little influence on the essential laws of man's existence: as our skeletons, probably, are not… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
When a man's conscience and the laws clash, it is his conscience that he must follow. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
How little do the most wonderful inventions of modern times detain us. They insult nature. Every machine, or particular application, seems a… — 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. What… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
For eighteen hundred years, though perchance I have no right to say it, the New Testament has been written; yet where is… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
It appears to be a law that you cannot have a deep sympathy with both man and nature. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Whether we live by the seaside, or by the lakes and rivers, or on the prarie, it concerns us to attend to… — 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
