If all were as it seems, and men made the elements their servants for noble ends! — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
As the least drop of wine tinges the whole goblet, so the least particle of truth colors our whole life. — 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
The scholar may be sure that he writes the tougher truth for the calluses on his palms. They give firmness to the… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Shams and delusions are esteemed for soundest truths, while reality is fabulous. If men would steadily observe realities only, and not allow… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
If there is nothing new on the earth, still the traveler always has a resource in the skies. They are constantly turning… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The whole body of what is now called moral or ethical truth existed in the golden age as abstract science. Or, if… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Truth is always in harmony with herself, and is not concerned chiefly to reveal the justice that may consist with wrong-doing. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Truth never turns to rebuke falsehood; her own straightforwardness is the severest correction. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
“Those who have been bred in the school of politics fail now and always to face the facts.” — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Poetry implies the whole truth, philosophy expresses only a particle of it. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I only desire sincere relations with the worthiest of my acquaintance, that they may give me an opportunity once in a year… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I often accuse my finest acquaintances of an immense frivolity; for, while there are manners and compliments we do not meet, we… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Perfect sincerity and transparency make a great part of beauty, as in dewdrops, lakes, and diamonds. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
After all the field of battle possesses many advantages over the drawing-room. There at least is no room for pretension or excessive… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The heroes and discoverers have found true more than was previously believed, only when they were expecting and dreaming of something more… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
While my friend was my friend, he flattered me, and I never heard the truth from him. When he became my enemy,… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The greatest gains and values are farthest from being appreciated. We easily come to doubt if they exist. We soon forget them.… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
There are sure to be two prescriptions diametrically opposite. — 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
A true account of the actual is the rarest poetry, for common sense always takes a hasty and superficial view. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The newspapers, I perceive, devote some of their columns specially to politics or government without charge; and this, one would say, is… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Exaggeration! was ever any virtue attributed to a man without exaggeration? was ever any vice, without infinite exaggeration? Do we not exaggerate… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
We should never stand upon ceremony with sincerity. We should never cheat and insult and banish one another by our meanness, 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
