Henry David Thoreau Quotes
Men are probably nearer the essential truth in their superstitions than in their science.
The youth may build or plant or sail, only let him not be hindered from doing that which he tells me he would like to do.
The dry grasses are not dead for me. A beautiful form has as much life at one season as another.
I was born upon thy bank, river, My blood flows in thy stream, And thou meanderest forever, At the bottom of my dream.
A book should contain pure discoveries, glimpses of terra firma, though by shipwrecked mariners, and not the art of navigation by those who have never been out of sight of land.
How can we remember our ignorance, which our growth requires, when we are using our knowledge all the time?
How does it become a man to behave towards the American government today? I answer, that he cannot without disgrace be associated with it.
In my walks, I would fain return to my senses. What business have I in the woods if I am thinking of something out of the woods?
Books can only reveal us to ourselves, and as often as they do us this service we lay them aside.
A man receives only what he is ready to receive... The phenomenon or fact that cannot in any wise be linked with the rest of what he has observed, he does not observe.
There is more of good nature than of good sense at the bottom of most marriages.
I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual. It is surprising how contented one can be with nothing definite - only a sense of existence. Well, anything for variety.
How often we find ourselves turning our backs on our actual friends, that we might go and meet their ideal cousins.
We seem but to linger in manhood to tell the dreams of our childhood, and they vanish out of memory ere we learn the language.
if i repent of anything, it is very likely to be my good behavior. what demon possessed me that i behaved so well?
In the meanest are all the materials of manhood, only they are not rightly disposed.
We commonly do not remember that it is, after all, always the first person that is speaking.
In most books, the I, of first person, is omitted; in this it will be retained; that, in respect to egotism, is the main difference.
Some are reputed sick and some are not. It often happens that the sicker man is the nurse to the sounder.
The most domestic cat, which has lain on a rug all her days, appears quite at home in the woods, and, by her sly and stealthy behavior, proves herself more native there than the regular inhabitants.
Events, circumstances, etc., have their origin in ourselves. They spring from seeds which we have sown.
Speech is for the convenience of those who are hard of hearing; but there are many fine things which we cannot say if we have to shout.
So far as my experience goes, travelers generally exaggerate the difficulties of the way. Like most evil, the difficulty is imaginary; for what's the hurry?
The character inherent in the American people has done all that has been accomplished; and it would have done somewhat more, if the government had not sometimes got in its way.
Every man is tasked to make his life, even in its details, worthy of the contemplation of his most elevated and critical hour.
