Men must speak English who can write Sanskrit; they must speak a modern language who write, perchance, an ancient and universal one. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Men sometimes speak as if the study of the classics would at length make way for more modern and practical studies; but… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I wish to speak a word for Nature, for absolute Freedom and Wildness, as contrasted with a Freedom and Culture merely civil,… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
If we will admit time into our thoughts at all, the mythologies, those vestiges of ancient poems, wrecks of poems, so to… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
“The walking of which I speak has nothing in it akin to taking exercise, as it is called, as the sick take… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
It takes two to speak the truth: one to speak, and another to hear. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
“I do not speak to those who are well employed, in whatever circumstances, and they know whether they are well employed or… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
You speak of poverty and dependence. Who are poor and dependent? Who are rich and independent? When was it that men agreed… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
It is a ridiculous demand which England and America make, that you shall speak so that they can understand you. Neither men… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
In short, all good things are wild and free. There is something in a strain of music, whether produced by an instrument… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I am resolved that I will not through humility become the devil's attorney. I will endeavor to speak a good word for… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The only way to tell the truth is to speak with kindness. Only the words of a loving man can be heard. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
“The West of which I speak is but another name for the Wild; and what I have been preparing to say is,… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
To speak impartially, the best men that I know are not serene, a world in themselves. For the most part, they dwell… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
If you can speak what you will never hear, if you can write what you will never read, you have done rare… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
No man with a genius for legislation has appeared in America. They are rare in the history of the world. There are… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
My actual life is a fact, in view of which I have no occasion to congratulate myself; but for my faith and… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
If I thought that I could speak with discrimination and impartiality of the nations of Christendom, I should praise them, but it… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I think it will be found that he who speaks with most authority on a given subject is not ignorant of what… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Very few men can speak of Nature, for instance, with any truth. They overstep her modesty, somehow or other, and confer no… — 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
There are some things which a man never speaks of, which are much finer kept silent about. To the highest communications we… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I lose my respect for the man who can make the mystery of sex the subject of a coarse jest, yet when… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
If we dealt only with the false and dishonest, we should at last forget how to speak truth. — 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
