The scholar may be sure that he writes the tougher truth for the calluses on his palms. They give firmness to the… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Statesmen and legislators, standing so completely within the institution, never distinctly and nakedly behold it. They speak of moving society, but they… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
A healthy man, with steady employment, as wood-chopping at fifty cents a cord, and a camp in the woods, will not be… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
It is not worth the while to go round the world to count the cats in Zanzibar. Yet do this even till… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
There is all the poetry in the world in a name. It is a poem which the mass of men hear and… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
If there is nothing new on the earth, still the traveler always has a resource in the skies. They are constantly turning… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Many expressions in the New Testament come naturally to the lips of all Protestants, and it furnishes the most pregnant and practical… — 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
Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life so. Aim above morality. Be not simply good; be… — 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
Truth is always in harmony with herself, and is not concerned chiefly to reveal the justice that may consist with wrong-doing. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Writing may be either the record of a deed or a deed. It is nobler when it is a deed. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Measure your health by your sympathy with morning and spring. If there is no response in you to the awakening of nature… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The journalists think that they cannot say too much in favor of such "improvements" in husbandry; it is a safe theme, like… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
If one listens to the faintest but constant suggestions of his genius, which are certainly true, he sees not to what extremes,… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I pray that the life of this spring and summer may ever lie fair in my memory. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
All questions rely on the present for their solution. Time measures nothing but itself. The word that is written may be postponed,but… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
You can hardly convince a man of an error in a lifetime, but must content yourself with the reflection that the progress… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
There may be an excess of cultivation as well as of anything else, until civilization becomes pathetic. A highly cultivated man,--all whose… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Do not lose hold of your dreams or aspirations. For if you do, you may still exist but you have ceased to… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I must walk toward Oregon, and not toward Europe. And that way the nation is moving, and I may say that mankind… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I think it would be worth the while to introduce a school of children to such [an oak grove], that they may… — 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
