Doubtless, we are as slow to conceive of Paradise as of Heaven, of a perfect natural as of a perfect spiritual world.… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Our manners have been corrupted by communication with the saints. Our hymn-books resound with a melodious cursing of God and enduring Him… — 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
It is true, these Roman Catholics, priests and all, impress me as a people who have fallen far behind the significance of… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The preachers and lecturers deal with men of straw, as they are men of straw themselves. Why, a free-spoken man, of sound… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The journalists think that they cannot say too much in favor of such "improvements" in husbandry; it is a safe theme, like… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The church is a sort of hospital for men's souls, and as full of quackery as the hospital for their bodies. Those… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Christianity only hopes. It has hung its harp on the willows, and cannot sing a song in a strange land. It has… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Yet the New Testament treats of man and man's so-called spiritual affairs too exclusively, and is too constantly moral and personal, to… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
My desire for knowledge is intermittent; but my desire to commune with the spirit of the universe, to be intoxicated with the… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Show me two villages, one embowered in trees and blazing with all the glories of October, the other a merely trivial and… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
We are not a religious people, but we are a nation of politicians. We do not care for the Bible, but we… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I got up early and bathed in the pond; that was a religious exercise, and one of the best things which I… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
What shall we think of a government to which all the truly brave and just men in the land are enemies, standing… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
“There is an incessant influx of novelty into the world, and yet we tolerate incredible dulness. I need only suggest what kind… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
It is remarkable that almost all speakers and writers feel it to be incumbent on them, sooner or later, to prove or… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I found in myself, and still find, an instinct toward a higher, or, as it is named, spiritual life, as do most… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The newspaper is a Bible which we read every morning and every afternoon, standing and sitting, riding and walking. It is a… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The New Testament is remarkable for its pure morality; the best of the Hindoo Scripture, for its pure intellectuality. The readeris nowhere… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
There is on the earth no institution which Friendship has established; it is not taught by any religion; no scripture contains itsmaxims.… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
To read well, that is, to read true books in a true spirit, is a noble exercise, and one that will tax… — 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
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 Image
“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 Image
Wealth is measured by the level of experience in all aspects of life — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
