Undoubtedly, in the most brilliant successes, the first rank is always sacrificed. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Enemies publish themselves. They declare war. The friend never declares his love. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I have a deep sympathy with war; it so apes the gait and bearing of the soul. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
We cannot well do without our sins; they are the highway of our virtue. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
What is human warfare but just this; an effort to make the laws of God and nature take sides with one party. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
It is impossible to give a soldier a good education without making him a deserter. His natural foe is the government that… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The very dogs that sullenly bay the moon from farm-yards in these nights excite more heroism in our breasts than all the… — 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
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
Whatever your sex or position, life is a battle in which you are to show your pluck, and woe be to the… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
“There are thousands who are in opinion opposed to slavery and to the war, who yet in effect do nothing to put… — 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
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
In 1848, Thoreau went to jail for refusing, as a protest against the Mexican war, to pay his poll tax. When RW… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I did not go to Boston, for with regard to that place I sympathize with one of my neighbors, an old man,… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
As I drew a still fresher soil about the rows with my hoe, I disturbed the ashes of unchronicled nations who in… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
It is not enough that our life is an easy one. We must live on the stretch, retiring to our rest like… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
America is said to be the arena on which the battle of freedom is to be fought; but surely it cannot be… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
How we shall earn our bread is a grave question; yet it is a sweet and inviting question. Let us not shirk… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
In war, in some sense, lies the very genius of law. It is law creative and active; it is the first principle… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
A common and natural result of an undue respect for law is, that you may see a file of soldiers, colonel, captain,… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
While the very inhabitants of New England were thus fabling about the country a hundred miles inland, which was a terra incognitato… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
If you would learn to speak all tongues and conform to the customs of all nations, if you would travel farther than… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also in prison, the only house in… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
It is for no particular item in the tax-bill that I refuse to pay it. I simply wish to refuse allegiance to… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
“One day when I went out to my wood-pile, or rather my pile of stumps, I observed two large ants, the one… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I have no doubt that they lived pretty much the same sort of life in the Homeric age, for men have always… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Measure your health by your sympathy with morning and spring. If there is no response in you to the awakening of nature… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
It is a thorough process, this war with the wilderness - breaking nature, taming the soil. feeding it on oats. The civilized… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
What a battle a man must fight everywhere to maintain his standing army of thoughts, and march with them in orderly array… — 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
The frontiers are not east or west, north or south; but wherever a man fronts a fact, though that fact be a… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
If one doubts whether Grecian valor and patriotism are not a fiction of the poets, he may go to Athens and see… — 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
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
“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
“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
“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
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
A traveler who looks at things with an impartial eye may see what the oldest inhabitant has not observed. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share
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
I had three chairs in my house; one for solitude, two for friendship, three for society. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share
The still youthful energies of the globe have only to be directed in their proper channel. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share
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
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 Copy Share
“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 Copy Share
Wealth is measured by the level of experience in all aspects of life — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share
