Will mankind never learn that policy is not morality,--that it never secures any moral right, but considers merely what is expedient? chooses… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
There is no such thing as accomplishing a righteous reform by the use of "expediency." There is no such thing as sliding… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
We have heard much about the poetry of mathematics, but very little of it has as yet been sung. The ancients had… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Others -- as most legislators, politicians, lawyers, ministers, and office-holders -- serve the state chiefly with their heads; and, as they rarely… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
There are continents and seas in the moral world, to which every man is an isthmus or inlet, yet unexplored by him. — 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
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
Any moral philosophy is exceedingly rare. This of Menu addresses our privacy more than most. It is a more private and familiar,… — 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
But labor of the hands, even when pursued to the verge of drudgery, is perhaps never the worst form of idleness. It… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
How wholesome winter is, seen far or near; how good, above all mere sentimental, warm-blooded, short-lived, soft-hearted, moral goodness, commonly so called.… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
All voting is a sort of gaming, like checkers or backgammon, with a slight moral tinge to it, a playing with right… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
What is the value of any political freedom, but as a means to moral freedom? — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
What is wanted is men of principle, who recognize a higher law than the decision of the majority. The marines and the… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Yet the New Testament treats of man and man's so-called spiritual affairs too exclusively, and is too constantly moral and personal, to… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Don't be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life so. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Alas! the culture of an Irishman is an enterprise to be undertaken with a sort of moral bog hoe. — 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
