Much is said about the progress of science in these centuries. I should say that the useful results of science had accumulated,… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The generative energy, which, when we are loose, dissipates and makes us unclean, when we are continent invigorates and inspires us. Chastity… — 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 know this well, that if one thousand, if one hundred, if ten men whom I could name,--if ten honest men only,--ay,… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
An ordinary man will work every day for a year at shoveling dirt to support his body, or a family of bodies;… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I have hardly begun to live on Staten Island yet; but, like the man who, when forbidden to tread on English ground,… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
It is so rare to meet with a man outdoors who cherishes a worthy thought in his mind, which is independent of… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
We belong to the community. It is not the tailor alone who is the ninth part of a man; it is as… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
If it is asserted that civilization is a real advance in the condition of man,--and I think that it is, though only… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
A regular council was held with the Indians, who had come in on their ponies, and speeches were made on both sides… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Any man knows when he is justified, and all the wits in the world cannot enlighten him on that point. The murderer… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Our manners have been corrupted by communication with the saints. Our hymn-books resound with a melodious cursing of God and enduring Him… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
No man's thoughts are new, but the style of their expression is the never-failing novelty which cheers and refreshes men. If we… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Even the death of Friends will inspire us as much as their lives. They will leave consolation to the mourners, as the… — 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
In our most trivial walks, we are constantly, though unconsciously, steering like pilots by certain well-known beacons and headlands, and if we… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I, on my side, require of every writer, first or last, a simple and sincere account of his own life, and not… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
For what are the classics but the noblest thoughts of man? They are the only oracles which are not decayed, and there… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The church is a sort of hospital for men's souls, and as full of quackery as the hospital for their bodies. Those… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Yet poetry, though the last and finest result, is a natural fruit. As naturally as the oak bears an acorn, and the… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The animal merely makes a bed, which he warms with his body, in a sheltered place; but man, having discovered fire, boxes… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also in prison, the only house in… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The philosopher's conception of things will, above all, be truer than other men's, and his philosophy will subordinate all the circumstances of… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The wildest dreams of wild men, even, are not the less true, though they may not recommend themselves to the sense which… — 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
Half the walk is but retracing our steps. We should go forth on the shortest walk, perchance, in the spirit of undying… — 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
In the wildest nature, there is not only the material of the most cultivated life, and a sort of anticipation of the… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
For my own part, I commonly attend more to nature than to man, but any affecting human event may blind our eyes… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
That excitement about Kossuth, consider how characteristic, but superficial, it was!--only another kind of politics or dancing. Men were making speeches to… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
If you would get money as a writer or lecturer, you must be popular, which is to go down perpendicularly… You are… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
We often love to think now of the life of men on beaches,--at least in midsummer, when the weather is serene; their… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
In Homer and Chaucer there is more of the innocence and serenity of youth than in the more modern and moral poets.… — 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
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
Men talk glibly enough about moonshine, as if they knew its qualities very well, and despised them; as owls might talk of… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
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
The book exists for us perchance which will explain our miracles and and reveal new ones. The at present unutterable things we… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
It is worth the while to detect new faculties in man,--he is so much the more divine; and anything that fairly excites… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
We say justly that the weak person is flat, for, like all flat substances, he does not stand in the direction of… — 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
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
“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
“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
“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
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
A traveler who looks at things with an impartial eye may see what the oldest inhabitant has not observed. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share
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
I had three chairs in my house; one for solitude, two for friendship, three for society. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share
The still youthful energies of the globe have only to be directed in their proper channel. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share
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
The lumberers rarely trouble themselves to put out their fires, such is the dampness of the primitive forest; and this is one cause, no… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share
“When he has obtained those things which are necessary to life, there is another alternative than to obtain the superfluities; and that is, to… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share
Wealth is measured by the level of experience in all aspects of life — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share
