The heroic books, even if printed in the character of our mother tongue, will always be in a language dead to degenerate… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
After all, the practical reason why, when the power is once in the hands of the people, a majority are permitted, and… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The only fruit which even much living yields seems to be often only some trivial success,--the ability to do some slight thing… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Once I went so far as to slaughter a woodchuck which ravaged my bean-field,--effect his transmigration, as a Tartar would say,--and devour… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
A truly good book attracts very little favor to itself. It is so true that it teaches me better than to read… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
We seem but to linger in manhood to tell the dreams of our childhood, and they vanish out of memory ere we… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Is the babe young? When I behold it, it seems more venerable than the oldest man. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
If all were as it seems, and men made the elements their servants for noble ends! — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I have lately got back to that glorious society called Solitude, where we meet our friends continually, and can imagine the outside… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
This world has many rings, like Saturn, and we live now on the outmost of them all. None can say deliberately that… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Men seem anxious to accomplish an orderly retreat through the centuries, earnestly rebuilding the works behind them, as they are battered down… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
They are not callow like the young of most birds, but more perfectly developed and precocious even than chickens. The remarkably adult… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Cold and hunger seem more friendly to my nature than those methods which men have adopted and advise to ward them off. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
We seem to think that the earth must go through the ordeal of sheep-pasturage before it is habitable by man. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
For my part, I feel that with regard to Nature I live a sort of border life, on the confines of a… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Nature refuses to sympathize with our sorrow. She seems not to have provided for, but by a thousand contrivances against it. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
It seems to me that the god that is commonly worshipped in civilized countries is not at all divine, though he bears… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
How little do the most wonderful inventions of modern times detain us. They insult nature. Every machine, or particular application, seems a… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The universe seems bankrupt as soon as we begin to discuss the characters of individuals. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The very austerity of the Brahmans is tempting to the devotional soul, as a more refined and nobler luxury. Wants so easily… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Most men, it seems to me, do not care for Nature and would sell their share in all her beauty, as long… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
What a contrast between the stern and desolate poetry of Ossian, and that of Chaucer, and even of Shakespeare and Milton, much… — 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
