We perceive that the schemers return again and again to common sense and labor. Such is the evidence of history. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
There are theoretical reformers at all times, and all the world over, living on anticipation. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Why do you ever mend your clothes, unless that, wearing them, you may mend your ways. Let us sing. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
We should endeavor practically in our lives to correct all the defects which our imagination detects. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
We are accustomed to say, that the mass of men are unprepared; but improvement is slow, because the few are not materially… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
If anything ail a man, so that he does not perform his functions, if he have a pain in his bowels even,-… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
It is not so important that many should be good as you, as that there be some absolute goodness somewhere; for that… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
At present the globe goes with a shattered constitution in its orbit… No doubt the simple powers of nature, properly directed by… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I believe that what so saddens the reformer is not his sympathy with his fellows in distress, but, though he be the… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
It becomes the moralist, too, to inquire what man might do to improve and beautify the system; what to make the stars… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
When I go into a museum and see the mummies wrapped in their linen bandages, I see that the lives of men… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Webster never goes behind government, and so cannot speak with authority about it. His words are wisdom to those legislators who contemplate… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The life of a good man will hardly improve us more than the life of a freebooter, for the inevitable laws appear… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The era of wild apples will soon be over. I wander through old orchards of great extent, now all gone to decay,… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The true reformer does not want time, nor money, nor coöperation, nor advice. What is time but the stuff delay is made… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Reform keeps many scores of newspapers in its service, but not one man. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Faith, indeed, is all the reform that is needed; it is itself a reform. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
To speak or do anything that shall concern mankind, one must speak and act as if well, or from that grain of… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The nonchalance and dolce-far-niente air of nature and society hint at infinite periods in the progress of mankind. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
My excuse for not lecturing against the use of tobacco is, that I never chewed it; that is a penalty which reformed… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Is a democracy, such as we know it, the last improvement possible in government? Is it not possible to take a step… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Those who, while they disapprove of the character and measures of a government, yield to it their allegiance and support are undoubtedly… — 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
Statesmen and legislators, standing so completely within the institution, never distinctly and nakedly behold it. They speak of moving society, but they… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
This fair homestead has fallen to us, and how little have we done to improve it, how little have we cleared and… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Our panaceas cure but few ails, our general hospitals are private and exclusive. We must set up another Hygeia than is now… — 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
