The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation. From the desperate city you go… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations. Books, the oldest and the best,… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Every gazette brings accounts of the untutored freaks of the wind,--shipwrecks and hurricanes which the mariner and planter acceptas special or general… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Philanthropy is almost the only virtue which is sufficiently appreciated by mankind. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
It would be glorious to see mankind at leisure for once. It is nothing but work, work, work. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The philanthropist too often surrounds mankind with the remembrance of his own cast- off griefs as an atmosphere, and calls it sympathy.… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
“Man is an animal who more than any other can adapt himself to all climates and circumstances.” — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Christ was a sublime actor on the stage of the world. He knew what he was thinking of when he said, "Heaven… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
What a glorious time they must have in that wilderness, far from mankind and election day! — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Most of the luxuries and many of the so-called comforts of life are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
There is no doubt that the loftiest written wisdom is either rhymed or in some way musically measured,--is, in form as well… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
All that man has to say or do that can possibly concern mankind is in some shape or other to tell the… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I cannot believe that our factory system is the best mode by which men may get clothing. The condition of the operatives… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I should be pleased to meet man in the woods. I wish he were to be encountered like wild caribous and moose. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
What is called eloquence in the forum is commonly found to be rhetoric in the study. The orator yields to the inspiration… — 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
This world is a place of business. What an infinite bustle! I am awaked almost every night by the panting of the… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I do not value any view of the universe into which man and the institutions of man enter very largely and absorb… — 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
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
The science of Humboldt is one thing, poetry is another thing. The poet to-day, notwithstanding all the discoveries of science, and the… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The nonchalance and dolce-far-niente air of nature and society hint at infinite periods in the progress of mankind. — 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
