Henry David Thoreau Quotes

Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end, an end which it was already but too easy to arrive at.

Henry David Thoreau

• Pretty
• Attention
• Serious

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Quotes to Explore

• I'm just a black hole for stuff. No one should ever hand me anything, because I get so easily distracted. I'll be like, 'Oh, look, something shiny!' I'm glad I never learned how to drive. I would be really dangerous.

  

  Florence Welch Florence and the Machine
  • Learned
  • Dangerous
  • Drive

• Obviously, I don't have a high IQ, but I've always liked nerds and quirky guys.

  

  Kaley Cuoco
  • High
  • Always
  • Quirky

• Americans are more likely to watch a film in their own language. For the rest of the world, it doesn't matter so much.

  

  Patricia Riggen
  • World
  • Rest
  • Language

• As the law minister, I had ensured that the government's right to natural resources was protected. The result was evident. The honourable Supreme Court gave the landmark decision in RIL vs RNRL case that the government is the owner of all natural resources.

  

  Veerappa Moily
  • Law
  • Government
  • Decision

• I know that, as a comedian, I've made great strides because I've worked as hard as a person can work at being at least wildly amusing.

  

  T. J. Miller
  • Work
  • Great
  • Know

• When I was a very young lawyer, I had a senior partner who advised me never to get mad, except on purpose.

  

  Warren Christopher
  • Purpose
  • Mad
  • Partner

• Some people lose sense of what their music was when their life starts to get better.

  

  Vince Staples
  • People
  • Life
  • Music

• I think Ali was a fan of mine, even though he never said it. A lot of fighters thought I was pretty good. Nobody every really spoke different on that. But a lot of fighters thought I was good so.

  

  Larry Holmes
  • Good
  • Different
  • Think

• I myself consider myself the most powerful figure in the world.

  

  Idi Amin
  • World
  • Myself
  • Powerful

• I was always very academically focused when I was growing up, and music was something for which I really had no preconceptions or expectations for myself or really any rules. It kind of represented, at least for me, a divergent path of creativity and self-discovery.

  

  K. Flay
  • Up
  • Music
  • Growing

• Ultravox were the blueprint for what I wanted to do, but I stumbled across them by accident.

  

  Gary Numan
  • Wanted
  • Accident
  • Blueprint

• I remember having this friend in school who said she didn't like the Beach Boys. And in that moment I knew we couldn't be friends anymore.

  

  Zooey Deschanel
  • School
  • She
  • Friends

• You don't choose a party because it's the flavour of the month. I feel I will be able to work under a political system. I feel if people like me don't enter politics to bring change, who will?

  

  Nandan Nilekani
  • People
  • Work
  • Political

• I didn't grow up with a mother, so I don't have that resource to rely on and ask a million questions.

  

  Vanessa Minnillo
  • Up
  • Mother
  • Questions

• Many environmental battles are won by delaying a destructive project long enough to change the conversation - to allow new economic, political and social dynamics to emerge.

  

  Frances Beinecke
  • Long
  • Political
  • Change

• Ed is very sexy because his emotions are really there - not forced.

  

  Valerie Bertinelli
  • Sexy
  • Emotions
  • Forced

• If you're going to nap, make sure you have a proper chunk of time blocked out. I'm not one of these guys that does the 15-20 minute nap. I don't play those games. I'm, like, an hour minimum. I'm not gonna lay down unless I know I have at least an hour.

  

  J. J. Watt
  • Time
  • Know
  • Down

• There are plenty of difficult obstacles in your path. Don't allow yourself to become one of them.

  

  Ralph Marston
  • Path
  • Yourself
  • Obstacles

• When I see a movie with someone it's kind of uncomfortable.

  

  S. E. Hinton
  • Movie
  • Kind
  • See

• I always had the intuition, even as a little child, that I was called for a big project.

  

  Shakira
  • Intuition

• Frank's really different from everything I've done. Maybe the one thing that's the same, and the thing that I tend to do, is that I think I can create an intimacy with the characters, like a sense of presence with the people in the film, and that's what I tried to do in 'Room' as well.

  

  Lenny Abrahamson
  • People
  • Different
  • Done

• All eyes, all attention at the federal level, are on al Qaeda and the war on terror. Fact is, al Qaeda wouldn't last a day in parts of Philadelphia. I've got gangsters with .45s that would run them out of town.

  

  Michael Nutter
  • Running
  • Attention
  • Philadelphia

• Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end, an end which it was already but too easy to arrive at.

  

  Henry David Thoreau
  • Pretty
  • Attention
  • Serious