The man who takes the liberty to live is superior to all the laws, by virtue of his relation to the lawmaker. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Of what use the friendliest disposition even, if there are no hours given to Friendship, if it is forever postponed to unimportant… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Not till we are lost, in other words not till we have lost the world, do we begin to find ourselves, and… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
True kindness is a pure divine affinity, Not founded upon human consanguinity. It is a spirit, not a blood relation, Superior to… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Children, who play life, discern its true law and relations more clearly than men, who fail to live it worthily, but who… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Friendship is never established as an understood relation. It is a miracle which requires constant proofs. It is an exercise of the… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
So soon did we, wayfarers, begin to learn that man's life is rounded with the same few facts, the same simple relations… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
There are certain pursuits which, if not wholly poetic and true, do at least suggest a nobler and finer relation to nature… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I do not remember anything which Confucius has said directly respecting man's "origin, purpose, and destiny." He was more practical than that.… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Concord is just as idiotic as ever in relation to the spirits and their knockings. Most people here believe in a spiritual… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Actually, the laboring man has not leisure for a true integrity day by day; he cannot afford to sustain the manliest relations… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
But it is fit that the Past should be dark; though the darkness is not so much a quality of the past… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
While almost all men feel an attraction drawing them to society, few are attracted strongly to Nature. In their reaction to Naturemen… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Our actual Friends are but distant relations of those to whom we are pledged. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
You must ascend a mountain to learn your relation to matter, and so to your own body, for it is at home… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
There is a higher law affecting our relation to pines as well as to men. A pine cut down, a dead pine,… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The deeds of love are less questionable than any action of an individual can be, for, it being founded on the rarest… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Action from principle, the perception and the performance of right, changes things and relations; it is essentially revolutionary, and does not consist… — 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
