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
Books of natural history aim commonly to be hasty schedules, or inventories of God's property, by some clerk. They do not in… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
For what are the classics but the noblest thoughts of man? They are the only oracles which are not decayed, and there… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
He who rides and keeps the beaten track studies the fences chiefly. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Instead of studying how to make it worth men's while to buy my baskets, I studied rather how to avoid the necessity… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
As for fowling, during the last years that I carried a gun my excuse was that I was studying ornithology, and sought… — 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
I mean that they (students) should not play life, or study it merely, while the community supports them at this expensive game,… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The study of geometry is a petty and idle exercise of the mind, if it is applied to no larger system than… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
What an admirable training is science for the more active warfare of life! Indeed, the unchallenged bravery which these studies imply, is… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The life of a good man will hardly improve us more than the life of a freebooter, for the inevitable laws appear… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
It is possible to invent a house still more convenient and luxurious than we have...but shall we always study to obtain more… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
He is not a true man of science who does not bring some sympathy to his studies, and expect to learn something… — 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
Winter is the time for study, you know, and the colder it is the more studious we are. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
He is not a true man of science who does not bring some sympathy to his studies, and expect to learn something… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
There is something servile in the habit of seeking after a law which we may obey. We may study the laws of… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Even the poor student studies and is taught only political economy, while that economy of living which is synonymous with philosophy is… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Most men appear never to have considered what a house is, and are actually though needlessly poor all their lives because they… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I cannot but regard it as a kindness in those who have the steering of me that, by the want of pecuniary… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I must walk toward Oregon, and not toward Europe. And that way the nation is moving, and I may say that mankind… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
A man will not need to study history to find out what is best for his own culture. — 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
