Men cannot conceive of a state of things so fair that it cannot be realized. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The mass of men serve the state thus, not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The chief want, in every state that I have been into, was a high and earnest purpose in its inhabitants. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
As far back as I can remember I have unconsciously referred to the experiences of a previous state of existence. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
If the alternative is to keep all just men in prison, or give up war and slavery, the State will not hesitate… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
All these sounds, the crowing of cocks, the baying of dogs, and the hum of insects at noon, are the evidence of… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I please myself with imagining a State at last which can afford to be just to all men, and to treat the… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I should be glad if all the meadows on the earth were left in a wild state, if that were the consequence… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
“The gross feeder is a man in the larva state; and there are whole nations in that condition, nations without fancy or… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
That Cabot merely landed on the uninhabitable shore of Labrador gave the English no just title to New England, or to the… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The United States have a coffle of four millions of slaves. They are determined to keep them in this condition; and Massachusettsis… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
In respect to religion and the healing art, all nations are still in a state of barbarism. In the most civilized countries… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
There will never be a really free and enlightened state until the state comes to recognize the individual as a higher and… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Everything counts for gain when we are cosmically awake. Nothing counts, unless we are awake. No enjoyments last, no successes satisfy, no… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I saw that the State was half-witted, that it was timid as a lone woman with her silver spoons, and that it… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
In accumulating property for ourselves or our posterity, in founding a family or a state, or acquiring fame even, we are mortal;… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Cast your whole vote, not a piece of paper merely, but your whole influence. A minority is powerless when it conforms to… — 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
To one who habitually endeavors to contemplate the true state of things, the political state can hardly be said to have any… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The story of Romulus and Remus being suckled by a wolf is not a meaningless fable. The founders of every State which… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Each new year is a surprise to us. We find that we had virtually forgotten the note of each bird, and when… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Mine was, as it were, the connecting link between wild and cultivated fields; as some states are civilized, and others half-civilized, and… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
What we want is not mainly to colonize Nebraska with free men, but to colonize Massachusetts with free men-to be free ourselves.… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
They who assert the purest right, and consequently are most dangerous to a corrupt State, commonly have not spent much time accumulating… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
When the State wishes to endow an academy or university, it grants it a tract of forest land: one saw represents an… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I quietly declare war with the State, after my fashion, though I will still make use and get advantage of her as… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
My facts shall be falsehoods to the common sense. I would so state facts that they shall be significant, shall be myths… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
A very few, as heroes, patriots, martyrs, reformers in the great sense, and men, serve the state with their conscience also, and… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Where on the globe can there be found an area of equal extent with that occupied by the bulk of our States,… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Politics is the gizzard of society, full of grit and gravel, and the two political parties are its opposite halves - sometimes… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
To meet the objections of some inveterate cavillers, I may as well state, that if I dined out occasionally, as I always… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Whoever can discern truth has received his commission from a higher source than the chiefest justice in the world who can discernonly… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
There is such a thing as caste, even in the West; but it is comparatively faint; it is conservatism here. It says,… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Thus the State never intentionally confronts a man's sense, intellectual or moral, but only his body, his senses. It is not armed… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
It is said that the British Empire is very large and respectable, and that the United States are a first-rate power. We… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The state does not demand justice of its members, but thinks that it succeeds very well with the least degree of it,… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I am reminded by my journey how exceedingly new this country still is. You have only to travel for a few days… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
If I deny the authority of the State when it presents my tax bill, it will soon take and waste all my… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
If there were one who lived wholly without the use of money, the State itself would hesitate to demand it of him.… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
We have built for this world a family mansion, and the next a family tomb. The best works of art are the… — 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
