Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations. Books, the oldest and the best,… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
We are a nation of politicians, concerned about the outmost defenses only of freedom. It is our children's children who may perchance… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I wish my countrymen to consider that whatever the human law may be, neither an individual nor a nation can ever commit… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I do not wish to quarrel with any man or nation. I do not wish to split hairs, to make fine distinctions,… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Nations! What are nations? Tartars! and Huns! and Chinamen! Like insects they swarm. The historian strives in vain to make them memorable.… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
When a sixth of the population of a nation which has undertaken to be the refuge of liberty are slaves, and a… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
All nations love the same jests and tales, Jews, Christians, and Mahometans, and the same translated suffice for all. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
In the religion of all nations a purity is hinted at, which, I fear, men never attain to. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
No man with a genius for legislation has appeared in America. They are rare in the history of the world. There are… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
If I thought that I could speak with discrimination and impartiality of the nations of Christendom, I should praise them, but it… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Individuals, like nations, must have suitable broad and natural boundaries, even a considerable neutral ground, between them. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The civilized nations--Greece, Rome, England--have been sustained by the primitive forests which anciently rotted where they stand. They survive as long as… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The customs of some savage nations might, perchance, be profitably imitated by us, for they at least go through the semblance of… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
As I drew a still fresher soil about the rows with my hoe, I disturbed the ashes of unchronicled nations who in… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
An Englishman, methinks,--not to speak of other European nations,--habitually regards himself merely as a constituent part of theEnglish nation; he is a… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
It is interesting to observe with what singular unanimity the farthest sundered nations and generations consent to give completeness and roundness to… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I must conclude that Conscience, if that be the name of it, was not given us for no purpose, or for a… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
All the events which make the annals of the nations are but the shadows of our private experiences. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
If we were left solely to the wordy wit of legislators in Congress for our guidance, uncorrected by the seasonal experience and… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
For the most part we stupidly confound one man with another. The dull distinguish only races or nations, or at most classes,… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
It would be worthy of the age to print together the collected Scriptures or Sacred Writings of the several nations, the Chinese,… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Nations are possessed with an insane ambition to perpetuate the memory of themselves by the amount of hammered stone they leave. What… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I must walk toward Oregon, and not toward Europe. And that way the nation is moving, and I may say that mankind… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
There have been some nations who could do nothing but construct tombs, and these are the only traces which they have left.… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
In respect to religion and the healing art, all nations are still in a state of barbarism. In the most civilized countries… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
In short, I am convinced, both by faith and experience, that to maintain one's self on this earth is not a hardship… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
If you would learn to speak all tongues and conform to the customs of all nations, if you would travel farther than… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
“The gross feeder is a man in the larva state; and there are whole nations in that condition, nations without fancy or… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
We are not a religious people, but we are a nation of politicians. We do not care for the Bible, but we… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Most of the stone a nation hammers goes toward its tomb only. It buries itself alive. — 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