Henry David Thoreau Quotes
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And now, at half-past ten o'clock, I hear the cockerels crow in Hubbard's barns, and morning is already anticipated. It is the feathered, wakeful thought in us that anticipates the following day.
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It is so rare to meet with a man out-doors who cherishes a worthy thought in his mind, which is independent of the labor of his hands.
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Whate'er we leave to God, God doesAnd blesses us.
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Some circumstantial evidence is very strong, as when you find a trout in the milk.
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What are the earth and all its interests beside the deep surmise which pierces and scatters them?
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And the cost of a thing it will be remembered as the amount of life it requires to be exchanged for it.
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As we passed under the last bridge over the canal, just before reaching the Merrimack, the people coming out of church paused to look at us from above, and apparently, so strong is custom, indulged in some heathenish comparisons; but we were the truest observers of this sunny day
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The Indian...stands free and unconstrained in Nature, is her inhabitant and not her guest, and wears her easily and gracefully. But the civilized man has the habits of the house. His house is a prison.
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The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation.
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I hear beyond the range of sound, I see beyond the range of sight,New earths and skies and seas around, And in my day the sun doth pale his light.
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I am as desirous of being a good neighbor as I am of being a bad subject.
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Simplify, simplify.
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My books I'd fain cast off, I cannot read,'Twixt every page my thoughts go stray at largeDown in the meadow, where is richer feed,And will not mind to hit their proper targe.
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Life consists with wildness. The most alive is the wildest. Not yet subdued to man, its presence refreshes him.
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Dreams are the touchstones of our characters.
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Money is not required to buy one necessity of the soul.
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Who could believe in prophecies of Daniel or of Miller that the world would end this summer, while one milkweed with faith matured its seeds?
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It is in vain to dream of a wildness distant from ourselves.
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I am a parcel of vain strivings tiedBy a chance bond together,Dangling this way and that, their linksWere made so loose and wide,Methinks,For milder weather.
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The finest manners in the world are awkwardness and fatuity, when contrasted with a finer intelligence.
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Gradually the village murmur subsided, and we seemed to be embarked on the placid current of our dreams, floating from past to future as silently as one awakes to fresh morning or evening thoughts.
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If a man walk in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer; but if he spends his whole day as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making earth bald before her time, he is esteemed an industrious and enterprising citizen. As if a town had no interest in its forests but to cut them down!
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Most of the luxuries, and many of the so-called comforts of life, are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind.
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It is not enough to be industrious; so are the ants. What are you industrious about?