We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
When a man's conscience and the laws clash, it is his conscience that he must follow. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
An efficient and valuable man does what he can, whether the community pay him for it or not. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
While some men believe in the infinite, some ponds will be thought to be bottomless. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The mass of men serve the state thus, not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
If you are a seer, whenever you meet a man you will see all that he owns, ay, and much that he… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Man needs to know but little more than a lobster in order to catch him in his traps. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Men have come to such a pass that they frequently starve, not for want of necessaries, but for want of luxuries. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Is a democracy, such as we know it, the last improvement possible in government? Is it not possible to take a step… — 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
What is peculiar in the life of a man consists not in his obedience, but his opposition, to his instincts. In one… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Books, not which afford us a cowering enjoyment, but in which each thought is of unusual daring; such as an idle man… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
There is a higher law affecting our relation to pines as well as to men. A pine cut down, a dead pine,… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
With a little more deliberation in the choice of their pursuits, all men would perhaps become essentially students and observers, for certainly… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I saw a muskrat come out of a hole in the ice ... While I am looking at him, I am thinking… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
For a man needs only to be turned around once with his eyes shut in this world to be lost...Not 'til we… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
This is a common experience in my traveling. I plod along, thinking what a miserable world this is and what miserable fellows… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
We are apt to imagine that this hubbub of Philosophy, Literature, and Religion, which is heard in pulpits, lyceums, and parlors, vibrates… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
That devilish Iron Horse, whose ear-rending neigh is heard throughout the town, has muddied the Boiling Spring with his foot, and he… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I expect a time when, or rather an integrity by which, a man will get his coat as honestly and as perfectly… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
How long shall we sit in our porticoes practising idle and musty virtues, which any work would make impertinent? As if one… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Letter-writing too often degenerates into a communicating of facts, and not of truths; of other men's deeds and not our thoughts.What are… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The moles nested in my cellar, nibbling every third potato, and making a snug bed even there of some hair left after… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
But why should not the New Englander try new adventures - not lay so much stress on his grain, his potato and… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
When a man truly commits, the universe will conspire to assure his success. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
This life we live is a strange dream, and I don't believe at all any account men give of it. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Men cannot conceive of a state of things so fair that it cannot be realized. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
It is pitiful when a man bears a name for convenience merely, who has earned neither name nor fame. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Every man has to learn the points of the compass again as often as he awakes, whether from sleep or any abstraction. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I hardly know an intellectual man, even, who is so broad and truly liberal that you can think aloud in his society. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
To be awake is to be completely alive. I have never yet met a man who was quite awake. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
But government in which the majority rule in all cases can not be based on justice, even as far as men understand… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Governments show thus how successfully men can be imposed on, even impose on themselves, for their own advantage. — 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. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
We have reason to be grateful for celestial phenomena, for they chiefly answer to the ideal in man. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
As naturally as the oak bears an acorn and the vine a gourd, man bears a poem, either spoken or done. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Morning work! By the blushes of Aurora and the music of Memnon, what should be man's morning work in this world? — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Most men I do not meet at all, for they seem not to have time; they are busy about their beans. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
It is very rare that you meet with obstacles in this world, which the humblest man has not faculties to surmount. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I do not judge men by anything they can do. Their greatest deed is the impression they make on me. — 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
