It takes two to speak truth, one to speak and another to hear. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The most difficult thing to understand during conversation is silence. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Who that has heard a strain of music feared then lest he should speak extravagantly any more forever? — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Speech is for the convenience of those who are hard of hearing; but there are many fine things which we cannot say… — 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
It is not in vain that man speaks to man. This is the value of literature. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
All men are really most attracted by the beauty of plain speech, and they even write in a florid style in imitation… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
What are men celebrating? They are all on a committee of arrangements, and hourly expect a speech from somebody. God is only… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
A man of rare common sense and directness of speech, as of action; a transcendentalist above all, a man of ideas and… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The orator puts off his individuality, and is then most eloquent when most silent. He listens while he speaks, and is a… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The most attractive sentences are, perhaps, not the wisest, but the surest and roundest. They are spoken firmly and conclusively, as if… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Truth is his inspirer, and earnestness the polisher of his sentences. He could afford to lose his Sharp's rifles, while he retained… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Good poetry seems so simple and natural a thing that when we meet it we wonder that all men are not always… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
When we come down into the distant village, visible from the mountain-top, the nobler inhabitants with whom we peopled it have departed,… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
As the truest society approaches always nearer to solitude, so the most excellent speech finally falls into Silence. Silence is audible to… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
What is called eloquence in the forum is commonly found to be rhetoric in the study. The orator yields to the inspiration… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
That excitement about Kossuth, consider how characteristic, but superficial, it was!--only another kind of politics or dancing. Men were making speeches to… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
“What other words, we may almost ask, are memorable and worthy to be repeated than those which love has inspired? It is… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
A regular council was held with the Indians, who had come in on their ponies, and speeches were made on both sides… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
It is remarkable, but on the whole, perhaps, not to be lamented, that the world is so unkind to a new book.… — 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
