Vices Quotes by Henry David Thoreau

11 Vices quotes by Henry David Thoreau

All Vices quotes Henry David Thoreau’s page

Thoreau’s reflections on vices appear in eleven compact lines. This modest set offers a quick, thoughtful glimpse into his contemplative stance.

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I never was so rapid in my virtue but my vice kept up with me.

Henry David Thoreau

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Our whole life is startlingly moral. There is never an instant's truce between virtue and vice.

Henry David Thoreau

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We are double-edged blades, and every time we whet our virtue the return stroke strops our vice.

Henry David Thoreau

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Our vices always lie in the direction of our virtues, and in their best estate are but plausible imitations of the latter.

Henry David Thoreau

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We are double-edged blades, and every time we whet our virtue the return stroke straps our vice. Where is the skillful swordsman…

Henry David Thoreau

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The Grecian are youthful and erring and fallen gods, with the vices of men, but in many important respects essentially of the…

Henry David Thoreau

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Somehow strangely the vice of men gets well represented and protected but their virtue has none to plead its cause - nor…

Henry David Thoreau

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The foul slime stands for the sloth and vice of man, the decay of humanity; the fragrant flower that springs from it,…

Henry David Thoreau

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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

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So behave that the odor of your actions may enhance the general sweetness of the atmosphere, that when we behold or scent…

Henry David Thoreau

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“Yet, for my part, I was never usually squeamish; I could sometimes eat a fried rat with a good relish, if it…

Henry David Thoreau

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If ever I did a man any goodof course it was something exceptional and insignificant compared with the good or evil which I am…

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Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end.

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“Men say they know many things; But lo! they have taken wings, — The arts and sciences, And a thousand appliances; The wind that…

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I am not afraid of praise, for I have practiced it on myself.

Henry David Thoreau

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“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

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“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

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As for doing good; that is one of the professions which is full. Moreover I have tried it fairly and, strange as it may…

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A traveler who looks at things with an impartial eye may see what the oldest inhabitant has not observed.

Henry David Thoreau

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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

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I had three chairs in my house; one for solitude, two for friendship, three for society.

Henry David Thoreau

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The still youthful energies of the globe have only to be directed in their proper channel.

Henry David Thoreau

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Concord's little arch does not span all our fate, nor is what transpires under it law for the universe.

Henry David Thoreau

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The lumberers rarely trouble themselves to put out their fires, such is the dampness of the primitive forest; and this is one cause, no…

Henry David Thoreau

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“When he has obtained those things which are necessary to life, there is another alternative than to obtain the superfluities; and that is, to…

Henry David Thoreau

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Wealth is measured by the level of experience in all aspects of life

Henry David Thoreau

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