If you indulge in long periods, you must be sure to have a snapper at the end. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
When we consider the weak and nerveless periods of some literary men, who perchance in feet and inches come up to the… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Nature is mythical and mystical always, and works with the license and extravagance of genius. She has her luxurious and florid style… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
When I hear the hypercritical quarreling about grammar and style, the position of the particles, etc., etc... I see that they forget… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Who cares what a man's style is, so it is intelligible,--as intelligible as his thought. Literally and really, the style is no… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
There is a sort of homely truth and naturalness in some books which is very rare to find, and yet looks cheap… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Steady labor with the hands, which engrosses the attention also, is unquestionably the best method of removing palaver and sentimentality out of… — 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
Much of our poetry has the very best manners, but no character. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
No man's thoughts are new, but the style of their expression is the never-failing novelty which cheers and refreshes men. If we… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
We are often struck by the force and precision of style to which hard-working men, unpracticed in writing, easily attain when required… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Translate a book a dozen times from one language to another, and what becomes of its style? Most books would be worn… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Carlyle must undoubtedly plead guilty to the charge of mannerism. He not only has his vein, but his peculiar manner of working… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Every man is the builder of a temple, called his body, to the god he worships, after a style purely his own,… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
A true poem is distinguished not so much by a felicitous expression, or any thought it suggests, as by the atmosphere which… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
After all, I believe it is the style of thought entirely, and the style of expression, which makes the difference in books. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Whose are the truly labored sentences? From the weak and flimsy periods of the politician and literary man, we are glad to… — 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
As for style of writing, if one has anything to say, it drops from him simply and directly, as a stone falls… — 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
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
