Nothing is so much to be feared as fear. Atheism may comparatively be popular with God himself. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
To one who habitually endeavors to contemplate the true state of things, the political state can hardly be said to have any… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Ex oriente lux may still be the motto of scholars, for the Western world has not yet derived from the East all… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
To meet the objections of some inveterate cavillers, I may as well state, that if I dined out occasionally, as I always… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
You only need sit still long enough in some attractive spot in the woods that all its inhabitants may exhibit themselves to… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
We are in great haste to construct a magnetic telegraph from Maine to Texas; but Maine and Texas, it may be, have… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Don't spend your time in drilling soldiers, who may turn out hirelings after all, but give to undrilled peasantry a country to… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Surely one may as profitably be soaked in the juices of a swamp for one day as pick his way dry-shod over… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Every morning was a cheerful invitation to make my life of equal simplicity, and I may say innocence, with Nature herself. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
“What other words, we may almost ask, are memorable and worthy to be repeated than those which love has inspired? It is… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names. It is not… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Heaven is not one of your fertile Ohio bottoms, you may depend on it. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient. The objections which have… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The woodchopper reads the wisdom of the ages recorded on the paper that holds his dinner, then lights his pipe with it.… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Rise free from care before the dawn and seek adventure. Let the noon find you by other lakes, and the night overtake… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I do not wish to quarrel with any man or nation. I do not wish to split hairs, to make fine distinctions,… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
A farmer, a hunter, a soldier, a reporter, even a philosopher, may be daunted; but nothing can deter a poet, for he… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Behave so the aroma of your actions may enhance the general sweetness of the atmosphere. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
A written word is the choicest of relics. It is something at once more intimate with us and more universal than any… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
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
I trust that some may be as near and dear to Buddha, or Christ, or Swedenborg, who are without the pale of… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
What is the price-current of an honest man and patriot to-day? They hesitate, and they regret, and sometimes they petition; but they… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root, and it may be… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
There may be something petty in a refined taste; it easily degenerates into effeminacy. It does not consider the broadest use. It… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Biography, too, is liable to the same objection; it should be autobiography. Let us not, as the Germans advise, endeavor to go… — 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
