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 great poem must have the stamp of greatness as well as its essence. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
My life has been the poem I would have writ, But I could not both live and utter it. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
“My life has been the poem I could have writ But I could not both live and utter it.” — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The condition-of-England question is a practical one. The condition of England demands a hero, not a poet. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
As naturally as the oak bears an acorn and the vine a gourd, man bears a poem, either spoken or done. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
If we respected only what is inevitable and has a right to be, music and poetry would resound along the streets. — 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
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
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
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 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
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 poet will write for his peers alone. He will remember only that he saw truth and beauty from his position, and… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Like speaks to like only; labor to labor, philosophy to philosophy, criticism to criticism, poetry to poetry. Literature speaks how much still… — 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
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 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 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
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
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
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 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 poet is he who can write some pure mythology today without the aid of posterity. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The best poets, after all, exhibit only a tame and civil side of nature. They have not seen the west side of… — 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
The prosaic man sees things badly, or with the bodily sense; but the poet sees them clad in beauty, with the spiritual… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Exaggerated history is poetry, and truth referred to a new standard. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
“the poem of the world is uninterrupted, but few are the ears that hear it.” — 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 morning wind forever blows, the poem of creation is uninterrupted; but few are the ears to hear it. — 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
Translate a book a dozen times from one language to another, and what becomes of its style? Most books would be worn… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
“What is a course of history, or philosophy, or poetry, no matter how well selected, or the best society, or the most… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
His style is eminently colloquial, and no wonder it is strange to meet with in a book. It is not literary or… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
We have heard much about the poetry of mathematics, but very little of it has yet been sung. The ancients had a… — 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
