If the fairest features of the landscape are to be named after men, let them be the noblest and worthiest men alone. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Critical acumen is exerted in vain to uncover the past; the past cannot be presented; we cannot know what we are not.… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
“I want the flower and fruit of a man; that some fragrance be wafted over from him to me, and some ripeness… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
He who is only a traveler learns things at second-hand and by the halves, and is poor authority. We are most interested… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The man who thrusts his manners upon me does as if he were to insist on introducing me to his cabinet of… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
What a singular fact for an angel visitant to this earth to carry back in his note-book, that men were forbidden to… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
This generation has come into the world fatally late for some enterprises. Go where we will on the surface of things, men… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Should not every apartment in which man dwells be lofty enough to create some obscurity overhead, where flickering shadows may play at… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Any man will go considerably out of his way to pick up a silver dollar; but here are golden words, which the… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Continued traveling is far from productive. It begins with wearing away the soles of the shoes, and making the feet sore, and… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
We falsely attribute to men a determined character - putting together all their yesterdays - and averaging them - we presume we… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
If all were as it seems, and men made the elements their servants for noble ends! — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
One who knew how to appropriate the true value of this world would be the poorest man in it. The poor rich… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
It is comparatively a faint and reflected beauty that is admired, not an essential and intrinsic one. It is because the old… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Men have a singular desire to be good without being good for anything, because, perchance, they think vaguely that so it will… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
It is not in vain that man speaks to man. This is the value of literature. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
All sensuality is one, though it takes many forms; all purity is one. It is the same whether a man eat, or… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
What shall we think of a government to which all the truly brave and just men in the land are enemies, standing… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I have lately got back to that glorious society called Solitude, where we meet our friends continually, and can imagine the outside… — 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
Every man will be a poet if he can; otherwise a philosopher or man of science. This proves the superiority of the… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Man cannot afford to be a naturalist, to look at Nature directly, but only with the side of his eye. He must… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Nowadays almost all man's improvements, so called, as the building of houses and the cutting down of the forest and of all… — 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
