As long as possible live free and uncommitted. It makes but little difference whether you are committed to a farm or the… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The civilized nations--Greece, Rome, England--have been sustained by the primitive forests which anciently rotted where they stand. They survive as long as… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Many, no doubt, are well disposed, but sluggish by constitution and habit, and they cannot conceive of a man who is actuated… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Every day a new picture is painted and framed, held up for half an hour, in such lights as the Great Artist… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The preachers and lecturers deal with men of straw, as they are men of straw themselves. Why, a free-spoken man, of sound… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
After all, the practical reason why, when the power is once in the hands of the people, a majority are permitted, and… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The hounding of a dog pursuing a fox or other animal in the horizon may have first suggested the notes of the… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
When I go into a museum and see the mummies wrapped in their linen bandages, I see that the lives of men… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The gentle rain which waters my beans and keeps me in the house today is not drear and melancholy, but good for… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
No doubt Carlyle has a propensity to exaggerate the heroic in history, that is, he creates you an ideal hero rather than… — 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
But it is rather derogatory that your dwelling-place should be only a neighborhood to a great city,--to live on an inclined plane.I… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
If we were left solely to the wordy wit of legislators in Congress for our guidance, uncorrected by the seasonal experience and… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
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
I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual. It is surprising how contented one can be with… — 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
It is remarkable how long men will believe in the bottomlessness of a pond without taking the trouble to sound it. — 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 bought me a spy-glass some weeks since. I buy but a few things, and those not till long after I begin… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
We are sometimes made aware of a kindness long passed, and realize that there have been times when our friends' thoughts of… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Every man casts a shadow; not his body only, but his imperfectly mingled spirit. This is his grief. Let him turn which… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I long ago lost a hound, a bay horse, and a turtle-dove, and am still on their trail. Many are the travellers… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
One cannot too soon forget his errors and misdemeanors. To dwell long upon them is to add to the offense. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
A man must generally get away some hundreds or thousands of miles from home before he can be said to begin his… — 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
