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
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
The culture of the hop ... so analagous to the culture and uses of the grape, may afford a theme for future poets. — 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 will maintain serenity in spite of all disappointments. He is expected to preserve an unconcerned and healthy outlook over the… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Our poets have sung of wine, the product of a foreign plant which commonly they never saw, as if our own plants… — 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
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
Some poems are for holidays only. They are polished and sweet, but it is the sweetness of sugar, and not such as… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
No definition of poetry is adequate unless it be poetry itself. The most accurate analysis by the rarest wisdom is yet insufficient,… — 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
If you would get money as a writer or lecturer, you must be popular, which is to go down perpendicularly… You are… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I foresee the time when the painter will paint that scene, no longer going to Rome for a subject; the poet will… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
When I stand in a library where is all the recorded wit of the world, but none of the recording, a mere… — 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
The true poem is not that which the public read. There is always a poem not printed on paper,... in the poet's… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The poet's, commonly, is not a logger's path, but a woodman's. The logger and pioneer have preceded him, like John the Baptist;… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I walk out into a nature such as the old prophets and poets Menu, Moses, Homer, Chaucer, walked in. You may name… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I wish to suggest that a man may be very industrious, and yet not spend his time well. There is no more… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
There is no doubt that the loftiest written wisdom is either rhymed or in some way musically measured,--is, in form as well… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
What would we not give for some great poem to read now, which would be in harmony with the scenery,--for if men… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The poet's body even is not fed like other men's, but he sometimes tastes the genuine nectar and ambrosia of the gods,… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
A township where one primitive forest waves above while another primitive forestrots below,such a town is fitted to raise not only corn… — 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
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
Already nature is serving all those uses which science slowly derives on a much higher and grander scale to him that will… — 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
It is the characteristic of great poems that they will yield of their sense in due proportion to the hasty and the… — 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
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
But there are spirits of a yet more liberal culture, to whom no simplicity is barren. There are not only stately pines,… — 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
English literature, from the days of the minstrels to the Lake Poets,--Chaucer and Spenser and Milton, and even Shakespeare, included,--breathes no quite… — 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 night in prison was novel and interesting enough… I found that even here there was a history and a gossip which… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Our bread need not ever be sour or hard to digest. What Nature is to the mind she is also to the… — 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… — 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
