Henry David Thoreau

I have met with but one or two persons in the course of my life who understood the art of Walking, that…

— Henry David Thoreau

The intercourse of the sexes, I have dreamed, is incredibly beautiful, too fair to be remembered. I have had thoughts about it,…

— Henry David Thoreau

The Musketaquid, or Grass-ground River, though probably as old as the Nile or Euphrates, did not begin to have a place in…

— Henry David Thoreau

In respect to religion and the healing art, all nations are still in a state of barbarism. In the most civilized countries…

— Henry David Thoreau

In short, I am convinced, both by faith and experience, that to maintain one's self on this earth is not a hardship…

— Henry David Thoreau

Birds never sing in caves.

— Henry David Thoreau

Do not seek so anxiously to be developed, to subject yourself to many influences to be played on; it is all dissipation.…

— Henry David Thoreau

The life without men praise and regard as successful is but one kind. Why should we exaggerate any one kind at the…

— Henry David Thoreau

Only that day dawns to which we are awake.

— Henry David Thoreau

In the streets and in society I am almost invariably cheap and dissipated, my life is unspeakably mean. No amount of gold…

— Henry David Thoreau

The man who does not betake himself at once and desperately to sawing is called a loafer, though he may be knocking…

— Henry David Thoreau

We have used up all our inherited freedom, like the young bird the albumen in the egg. It is not an era…

— Henry David Thoreau

It is never too late to give up our prejudices. No way of thinking or doing, however, ancient, can be trusted without…

— Henry David Thoreau

Law never made man a whit more just; and by means of their respect for it, even the well disposed are daily…

— Henry David Thoreau

It is not generally remembered, if known, by thedescendants of the Pilgrims, that when their forefathers were spending their first memorable winter…

— Henry David Thoreau

There are times when we have had enough even of our Friends.

— Henry David Thoreau

A man's whole life is taxed for the least thing well done. It is its net result.

— Henry David Thoreau

Those who, while they disapprove of the character and measures of a government, yield to it their allegiance and support are undoubtedly…

— Henry David Thoreau

Fishermen, hunters, woodchoppers, and others, spending their lives in the fields and woods, in a peculiar sense a part of Nature themselves,…

— Henry David Thoreau

The phenomena of the year take place every day in a pond on a small scale. Every morning, generally speaking, the shallow…

— Henry David Thoreau

How can he remember well his ignorance - which his growth requires - who has so often to use his knowledge?

— Henry David Thoreau

He who hears the rippling of rivers in these degenerate days will not utterly despair.

— Henry David Thoreau

If rightly made, a boat would be a sort of amphibious animal, a creature of two elements, related by one half its…

— Henry David Thoreau

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

When we want culture more than potatoes, and illumination more than sugar-plums, then the great resources of a world are taxed anddrawn…

— Henry David Thoreau