Nearest to all things is that power which fashions their being. Next to us the grandest laws are constantly being executed. Next… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
It is worth the while to detect new faculties in man,--he is so much the more divine; and anything that fairly excites… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
We should seek to be fellow students with the pupil, and should learn of, as well as with him, if we would… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
It would surpass the powers of a well man nowadays to take up his bed and walk, and I should certainly advise… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
In a pure society, the subject of marriage would not be so often avoided,--from shame and not from reverence, winked out of… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The boatmen appeared to lead an easy and contented life, and we thought that we should prefer their employment ourselves to many… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
To the sick, indeed, nature is sick, but to the well, a fountain of health. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
For if we take the ages into our account, may there not be a civilization going on among brutes as well as… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
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
Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The wildest dreams of wild men, even, are not the less true, though they may not recommend themselves to the sense which… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
A man might well pray that he may not taboo or curse any portion of nature by being buried in it. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I know this well, that if one thousand, if one hundred, if ten men whom I could name,--if ten honest men only,--ay,… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I know very well what Goethe meant when he said that he never had a chagrin but he made a poem out… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The man of genius, like a dog with a bone, or the slave who has swallowed a diamond, or a patient with… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
As for conforming outwardly, and living your own life inwardly, I do not think much of that. Let not your right hand… — 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
The walls that fence our fields, as well as modern Rome, and not less the Parthenon itself, are all built of ruins. — 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
They were pleasant spring days, in which the winter of man's discontent was thawing as well as the earth, and the life… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
For it matters not how small the beginning may seem to be: what is once well done is done forever. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Nature is doing her best each moment to make us well. Why, nature is but another name for health. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Surely, we are provided with senses as well fitted to penetrate the spaces of the real, the substantial, the eternal, as these… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual. It is surprising how contented one can be with… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
To meet the objections of some inveterate cavillers, I may as well state, that if I dined out occasionally, as I always… — 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
