There are two classes of men called poets. The one cultivates life, the other art,... one satisfies hunger, the other gratifies the… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
A true poem is distinguished not so much by a felicitous expression, or any thought it suggests, as by the atmosphere which… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The murmurs of many a famous river on the other side of the globe reach even to us here, as to more… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
It would be well, perhaps, if we were to spend more of our days and nights without any obstruction between us and… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The poet uses the results of science and philosophy, and generalizes their widest deductions. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Is it the lumberman, then, who is the friend and lover of the pine, stands nearest to it, and understands its nature… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Where the most beautiful wild flowers grow, there mans spirit is fed and poets grow. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The poet is no tender slip of fairy stock, who requires peculiar institutions and edicts for his defense, but the toughest son… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The poet who walks by moonlight is conscious of a tide in his thought which is to be referred to lunar influence. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
When we come down into the distant village, visible from the mountain-top, the nobler inhabitants with whom we peopled it have departed,… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Every man will be a poet if he can; otherwise a philosopher or man of science. This proves the superiority of the… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The science of Humboldt is one thing, poetry is another thing. The poet to-day, notwithstanding all the discoveries of science, and the… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
There is all the poetry in the world in a name. It is a poem which the mass of men hear and… — 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
As long as there is satire, the poet is, as it were, particeps criminis. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The universe constantly and obediently answers to our conceptions; whether we travel fast or slow, the track is laid for us. Let… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The works of great poets have never been read by mankind, for only great poets can read them. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
But the divinest poem, or the life of a great man, is the severest satire.... The greater the genius, the keener the… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
A true account of the actual is the rarest poetry, for common sense always takes a hasty and superficial view. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The art of life, of a poet's life, is, not having anything to do, to do something. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
A man sees only what concerns him.... How much more, then, it requires different intentions of the eye and of the mind… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The poet is a man who lives at last by watching his moods. An old poet comes at last to watch his… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Fishermen, hunters, woodchoppers, and others, spending their lives in the fields and woods, in a peculiar sense a part of Nature themselves,… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
When we want culture more than potatoes, and illumination more than sugar-plums, then the great resources of a world are taxed anddrawn… — 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
