--- title: "19 Modern Quotes By Henry David Thoreau" description: "19 Modern quotes by Henry David Thoreau. Plus more from Henry David Thoreau and more Modern sayings from other authors." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/8fb/henry-david-thoreau-20_age_a-modern-author-would-have-died-in-infan_2646920.jpg" --- > [A modern author would have died in infancy in a ruder age.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-david-thoreau/a-modern-author-would-have-died-in-infancy-in-a-ruder-age/) [Henry David Thoreau](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-david-thoreau/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/8fb/henry-david-thoreau-20_age_a-modern-author-would-have-died-in-infan_2646920.jpg) > [The walls that fence our fields, as well as modern Rome, and not less the Parthenon itself, are all built of ruins.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-david-thoreau/the-walls-that-fence-our-fields-as-well-as-modern-rome-and-not-less/) [Henry David Thoreau](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-david-thoreau/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a30/henry-david-thoreau-20_american-history_the-walls-that-fence-our-fields-as-well_477805.jpg) > [In the morning I bathe my intellect in the stupendous and cosmogonal philosophy of the Bhagavad-Gita, in comparison with which our modern…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-david-thoreau/in-the-morning-i-bathe-my-intellect-in-the-stupendous-and-cosmogonal/) [Henry David Thoreau](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-david-thoreau/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b64/henry-david-thoreau-20_books_in-the-morning-i-bathe-my-intellect-in-t_691899.jpg) > [Men must speak English who can write Sanskrit; they must speak a modern language who write, perchance, an ancient and universal one.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-david-thoreau/men-must-speak-english-who-can-write-sanskrit-they-must-speak-a/) [Henry David Thoreau](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-david-thoreau/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4c8/henry-david-thoreau-20_ancient_men-must-speak-english-who-can-write-san_20341.jpg) > [I do not know where to find in any literature, whether ancient or modern, any adequate account of that Nature with which…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-david-thoreau/i-do-not-know-where-to-find-in-any-literature-whether-ancient-or/) [Henry David Thoreau](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-david-thoreau/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/243/henry-david-thoreau-20_accounts_i-do-not-know-where-to-find-in-any-liter_461434.jpg) > [How little do the most wonderful inventions of modern times detain us. They insult nature. Every machine, or particular application, seems a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-david-thoreau/how-little-do-the-most-wonderful-inventions-of-modern-times-detain-us/) [Henry David Thoreau](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-david-thoreau/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/eb2/henry-david-thoreau-20_application_how-little-do-the-most-wonderful-inventi_2780343.jpg) > [History has neither the venerableness of antiquity, nor the freshness of the modern. It does as if it would go to the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-david-thoreau/history-has-neither-the-venerableness-of-antiquity-nor-the-freshness/) [Henry David Thoreau](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-david-thoreau/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e0c/henry-david-thoreau-20_antiquity_history-has-neither-the-venerableness-of_581707.jpg) > [Men sometimes speak as if the study of the classics would at length make way for more modern and practical studies; but…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-david-thoreau/men-sometimes-speak-as-if-the-study-of-the-classics-would-at-length/) [Henry David Thoreau](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-david-thoreau/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/7f7/henry-david-thoreau-20_adventurous_men-sometimes-speak-as-if-the-study-of-t_328527.jpg) > [For my part, I would rather look toward Rutland than Jerusalem. Rutland,--modern town,--land of ruts,--trivial and worn,--not toosacred,--with no holy sepulchre, but…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-david-thoreau/for-my-part-i-would-rather-look-toward-rutland-than-jerusalem-rutland/) [Henry David Thoreau](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-david-thoreau/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/199/henry-david-thoreau-20_christianity_for-my-part-i-would-rather-look-toward-r_1381358.jpg) > [What is a country without rabbits and partridges? They are among the most simple and indigenous animal products; ancient and venerable families…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-david-thoreau/what-is-a-country-without-rabbits-and-partridges-they-are-among-the/) [Henry David Thoreau](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-david-thoreau/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f60/henry-david-thoreau-20_ancient_what-is-a-country-without-rabbits-and-pa_318267.jpg) > [I lately met with an old volume from a London bookshop, containing the Greek Minor Poets, and it was a pleasure to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-david-thoreau/i-lately-met-with-an-old-volume-from-a-london-bookshop-containing-the/) [Henry David Thoreau](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-david-thoreau/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/de7/henry-david-thoreau-20_bookshops_i-lately-met-with-an-old-volume-from-a-l_1763444.jpg) > [As with our colleges, so with a hundred "modern improvements"; there is an illusion about them; there is not always a positive…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-david-thoreau/as-with-our-colleges-so-with-a-hundred-modern-improvements-there-is/) [Henry David Thoreau](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-david-thoreau/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/daf/henry-david-thoreau-20_college_as-with-our-colleges-so-with-a-hundred-m_556943.jpg) > [For what are the classics but the noblest thoughts of man? They are the only oracles which are not decayed, and there…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-david-thoreau/for-what-are-the-classics-but-the-noblest-thoughts-of-man-they-are/) [Henry David Thoreau](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-david-thoreau/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ec5/henry-david-thoreau-20_answers_for-what-are-the-classics-but-the-nobles_491270.jpg) > [In Homer and Chaucer there is more of the innocence and serenity of youth than in the more modern and moral poets.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-david-thoreau/in-homer-and-chaucer-there-is-more-of-the-innocence-and-serenity-of/) [Henry David Thoreau](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-david-thoreau/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/cb3/henry-david-thoreau-20_appetite_in-homer-and-chaucer-there-is-more-of-th_2587697.jpg) > [The heroic books, even if printed in the character of our mother tongue, will always be in a language dead to degenerate…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-david-thoreau/the-heroic-books-even-if-printed-in-the-character-of-our-mother/) [Henry David Thoreau](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-david-thoreau/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d83/henry-david-thoreau-20_antiquity_the-heroic-books-even-if-printed-in-the_1790440.jpg) > [Ancient history has an air of antiquity. It should be more modern. It is written as if the specator should be thinking…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-david-thoreau/ancient-history-has-an-air-of-antiquity-it-should-be-more-modern-it/) [Henry David Thoreau](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-david-thoreau/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/887/henry-david-thoreau-20_air_ancient-history-has-an-air-of-antiquity_2252786.jpg) > [A temple, you know, was anciently "an open place without a roof," whose walls served merely to shut out the world and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-david-thoreau/a-temple-you-know-was-anciently-an-open-place-without-a-roof-whose/) [Henry David Thoreau](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-david-thoreau/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/974/henry-david-thoreau-20_crowds_a-temple-you-know-was-anciently-an-open_3161740.jpg) > [The Oriental philosophy approaches easily loftier themes than the modern aspires to; and no wonder if it sometimes prattle about them. It…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-david-thoreau/the-oriental-philosophy-approaches-easily-loftier-themes-than-the/) [Henry David Thoreau](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-david-thoreau/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a1e/henry-david-thoreau-20_action_the-oriental-philosophy-approaches-easil_755854.jpg) > [As I drew a still fresher soil about the rows with my hoe, I disturbed the ashes of unchronicled nations who in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-david-thoreau/as-i-drew-a-still-fresher-soil-about-the-rows-with-my-hoe-i-disturbed/) [Henry David Thoreau](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-david-thoreau/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/20b/henry-david-thoreau-20_ashes_as-i-drew-a-still-fresher-soil-about-the_1684266.jpg) ## Other authors on Modern ## More by Henry David Thoreau > [If ever I did a man any goodof course it was something exceptional and insignificant compared with the good or evil which I am…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-david-thoreau/if-ever-i-did-a-man-any-goodof-course-it-was-something-exceptional/) [Henry David Thoreau](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-david-thoreau/) > [Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-david-thoreau/our-inventions-are-wont-to-be-pretty-toys-which-distract-our/) [Henry David Thoreau](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-david-thoreau/) > [“Men say they know many things; But lo! they have taken wings, — The arts and sciences, And a thousand appliances; The wind that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-david-thoreau/men-say-they-know-many-things-but-lo-they-have-taken-wings-the-arts/) [Henry David Thoreau](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-david-thoreau/) > [I am not afraid of praise, for I have practiced it on myself.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-david-thoreau/i-am-not-afraid-of-praise-for-i-have-practiced-it-on-myself/) [Henry David Thoreau](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-david-thoreau/) > [“All voting is a sort of gaming, like checkers or back gammon, with a slight moral tinge to it, a playing with right and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-david-thoreau/all-voting-is-a-sort-of-gaming-like-checkers-or-back-gammon-with-a/) [Henry David Thoreau](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-david-thoreau/) > [“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…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-david-thoreau/this-spending-of-the-best-part-of-one-s-life-earning-money-in-order/) [Henry David Thoreau](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-david-thoreau/) > [As for doing good; that is one of the professions which is full. Moreover I have tried it fairly and, strange as it may…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-david-thoreau/as-for-doing-good-that-is-one-of-the-professions-which-is-full/) [Henry David Thoreau](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-david-thoreau/) > [A traveler who looks at things with an impartial eye may see what the oldest inhabitant has not observed.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-david-thoreau/a-traveler-who-looks-at-things-with-an-impartial-eye-may-see-what-the/) [Henry David Thoreau](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-david-thoreau/) > [In proportion as our inward life fails, we go more constantly and desperately to the post office. You may depend on it, that the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-david-thoreau/in-proportion-as-our-inward-life-fails-we-go-more-constantly-and/) [Henry David Thoreau](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-david-thoreau/) > [I had three chairs in my house; one for solitude, two for friendship, three for society.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-david-thoreau/i-had-three-chairs-in-my-house-one-for-solitude-two-for-friendship/) [Henry David Thoreau](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-david-thoreau/) > [The still youthful energies of the globe have only to be directed in their proper channel.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-david-thoreau/the-still-youthful-energies-of-the-globe-have-only-to-be-directed-in/) [Henry David Thoreau](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-david-thoreau/) > [Concord's little arch does not span all our fate, nor is what transpires under it law for the universe.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-david-thoreau/concord-s-little-arch-does-not-span-all-our-fate-nor-is-what/) [Henry David Thoreau](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-david-thoreau/) > [The lumberers rarely trouble themselves to put out their fires, such is the dampness of the primitive forest; and this is one cause, no…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-david-thoreau/the-lumberers-rarely-trouble-themselves-to-put-out-their-fires-such/) [Henry David Thoreau](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-david-thoreau/) > [“When he has obtained those things which are necessary to life, there is another alternative than to obtain the superfluities; and that is, to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-david-thoreau/when-he-has-obtained-those-things-which-are-necessary-to-life-there/) [Henry David Thoreau](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-david-thoreau/) > [Wealth is measured by the level of experience in all aspects of life](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-david-thoreau/wealth-is-measured-by-the-level-of-experience-in-all-aspects-of-life/) [Henry David Thoreau](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-david-thoreau/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "ItemList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/modern/henry-david-thoreau/#itemlist", "name": "19 Modern Quotes By Henry David Thoreau", "numberOfItems": 19, "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "A modern author would have died in infancy in a ruder age.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Henry David Thoreau" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-david-thoreau/a-modern-author-would-have-died-in-infancy-in-a-ruder-age/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/8fb/henry-david-thoreau-20_age_a-modern-author-would-have-died-in-infan_2646920.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/8fb/henry-david-thoreau-20_age_a-modern-author-would-have-died-in-infan_2646920.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/8fb/henry-david-thoreau-20_age_a-modern-author-would-have-died-in-infan_2646920.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“A modern author would have died in infancy in a ruder age.” — Henry David Thoreau", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "The walls that fence our fields, as well as modern Rome, and not less the Parthenon itself, are all built of ruins.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Henry David Thoreau" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-david-thoreau/the-walls-that-fence-our-fields-as-well-as-modern-rome-and-not-less/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a30/henry-david-thoreau-20_american-history_the-walls-that-fence-our-fields-as-well_477805.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a30/henry-david-thoreau-20_american-history_the-walls-that-fence-our-fields-as-well_477805.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a30/henry-david-thoreau-20_american-history_the-walls-that-fence-our-fields-as-well_477805.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“The walls that fence our fields, as well as modern Rome, and not less the Parthenon itself, are all built of…” — Henry David Thoreau", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "In the morning I bathe my intellect in the stupendous and cosmogonal philosophy of the Bhagavad-Gita, in comparison with which our modern world and its literature seems puny and trivial.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Henry David Thoreau" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-david-thoreau/in-the-morning-i-bathe-my-intellect-in-the-stupendous-and-cosmogonal/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b64/henry-david-thoreau-20_books_in-the-morning-i-bathe-my-intellect-in-t_691899.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b64/henry-david-thoreau-20_books_in-the-morning-i-bathe-my-intellect-in-t_691899.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b64/henry-david-thoreau-20_books_in-the-morning-i-bathe-my-intellect-in-t_691899.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“In the morning I bathe my intellect in the stupendous and cosmogonal philosophy of the Bhagavad-Gita, in…” — Henry David Thoreau", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Men must speak English who can write Sanskrit; 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They insult nature. Every machine, or particular application, seems a slight outrage against universal laws.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Henry David Thoreau" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-david-thoreau/how-little-do-the-most-wonderful-inventions-of-modern-times-detain-us/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/eb2/henry-david-thoreau-20_application_how-little-do-the-most-wonderful-inventi_2780343.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/eb2/henry-david-thoreau-20_application_how-little-do-the-most-wonderful-inventi_2780343.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/eb2/henry-david-thoreau-20_application_how-little-do-the-most-wonderful-inventi_2780343.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“How little do the most wonderful inventions of modern times detain us. They insult nature. 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It does as if it would go to the beginning ofthings, which natural history might with reason assume to do; but consider the Universal History, and then tell us,--when did burdock and plantain sprout first?", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Henry David Thoreau" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-david-thoreau/history-has-neither-the-venerableness-of-antiquity-nor-the-freshness/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e0c/henry-david-thoreau-20_antiquity_history-has-neither-the-venerableness-of_581707.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e0c/henry-david-thoreau-20_antiquity_history-has-neither-the-venerableness-of_581707.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e0c/henry-david-thoreau-20_antiquity_history-has-neither-the-venerableness-of_581707.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“History has neither the venerableness of antiquity, nor the freshness of the modern. 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Rutland,--modern town,--land of ruts,--trivial and worn,--not toosacred,--with no holy sepulchre, but profane green fields and dusty roads, and opportunity to live as holy a life as you can, where the sacredness, if there is any, is all in yourself and not in the place.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Henry David Thoreau" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-david-thoreau/for-my-part-i-would-rather-look-toward-rutland-than-jerusalem-rutland/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/199/henry-david-thoreau-20_christianity_for-my-part-i-would-rather-look-toward-r_1381358.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/199/henry-david-thoreau-20_christianity_for-my-part-i-would-rather-look-toward-r_1381358.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/199/henry-david-thoreau-20_christianity_for-my-part-i-would-rather-look-toward-r_1381358.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“For my part, I would rather look toward Rutland than Jerusalem. 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They are among the most simple and indigenous animal products; ancient and venerable families known to antiquity as to modern times; of the very hue and substance of Nature, nearest allied to leaves and to the ground.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Henry David Thoreau" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-david-thoreau/what-is-a-country-without-rabbits-and-partridges-they-are-among-the/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f60/henry-david-thoreau-20_ancient_what-is-a-country-without-rabbits-and-pa_318267.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f60/henry-david-thoreau-20_ancient_what-is-a-country-without-rabbits-and-pa_318267.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f60/henry-david-thoreau-20_ancient_what-is-a-country-without-rabbits-and-pa_318267.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“What is a country without rabbits and partridges? 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The devil goes on exacting a compound interest to the last for his early share and numerous succeeding investments in them.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Henry David Thoreau" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-david-thoreau/as-with-our-colleges-so-with-a-hundred-modern-improvements-there-is/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/daf/henry-david-thoreau-20_college_as-with-our-colleges-so-with-a-hundred-m_556943.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/daf/henry-david-thoreau-20_college_as-with-our-colleges-so-with-a-hundred-m_556943.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/daf/henry-david-thoreau-20_college_as-with-our-colleges-so-with-a-hundred-m_556943.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“As with our colleges, so with a hundred \"modern improvements\"; there is an illusion about them; there is not…” — Henry David Thoreau", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 13, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "For what are the classics but the noblest thoughts of man? 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The Iliad is not Sabbath but morning reading, and men cling to this old song, because they still have moments of unbaptized and uncommitted life, which give them an appetite for more.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Henry David Thoreau" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-david-thoreau/in-homer-and-chaucer-there-is-more-of-the-innocence-and-serenity-of/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/cb3/henry-david-thoreau-20_appetite_in-homer-and-chaucer-there-is-more-of-th_2587697.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/cb3/henry-david-thoreau-20_appetite_in-homer-and-chaucer-there-is-more-of-th_2587697.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/cb3/henry-david-thoreau-20_appetite_in-homer-and-chaucer-there-is-more-of-th_2587697.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“In Homer and Chaucer there is more of the innocence and serenity of youth than in the more modern and moral…” — Henry David Thoreau", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 15, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "The heroic books, even if printed in the character of our mother tongue, will always be in a language dead to degenerate times; and we must laboriously seek the meaning of each word and line, conjecturing a larger sense than common use permits out of what wisdom and valor and generosity we have. The modern cheap and fertile press, with all its translations, has done little to bring us nearer to the heroic writers of antiquity. 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It should be more modern. It is written as if the specator should be thinking of the backside of the picture on the wall, or as if the author expected that the dead would be his readers, and wished to detail to them their own experience.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Henry David Thoreau" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-david-thoreau/ancient-history-has-an-air-of-antiquity-it-should-be-more-modern-it/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/887/henry-david-thoreau-20_air_ancient-history-has-an-air-of-antiquity_2252786.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/887/henry-david-thoreau-20_air_ancient-history-has-an-air-of-antiquity_2252786.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/887/henry-david-thoreau-20_air_ancient-history-has-an-air-of-antiquity_2252786.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Ancient history has an air of antiquity. It should be more modern. 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It only assigns their due rank respectively to Action and Contemplation, or rather does full justice to the latter. 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