Henry David Thoreau quotes - page 31

A State which bore this kind of fruit, and suffered it to drop off as fast as it ripened, would prepare the way for a still more perfect and glorious State, which also I have imagined, but not yet anywhere seen. (Henry David Thoreau)
Truth, Goodness, Beauty - those celestial thrins, Continually are born. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
Aeschylus had a clear eye for the commonest things. His genius was only an enlarged common sense. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
It was his peculiar doctrine that a man has a perfect right to interfere by force with the slaveholder, in order to rescue the slave. I agree with him. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
The hidden significance of these fables which is sometimes thought to have been detected, the ethics running parallel to the poetry and history, are not so remarkable as the readiness with which they may be made to express a variety of truths. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
Men and boys are learning all kinds of trades but how to make men of themselves. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
It would be worthy of the age to print together the collected Scriptures or Sacred Writings of the several nations, the Chinese, the Hindus, the Persians, the Hebrews, and others, as the Scripture of mankind. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
Men go to a fire for entertainment. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
They are infra-human, a kind of vegetation. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. (Henry David Thoreau)
If you want to be happy, be! View quote
Henry David Thoreau
While civilization has been improving our houses, it has not equally improved the men who are to inhabit them. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
The man who goes alone can start today; but he who travels with another must wait until that other is ready, and it may be a long time before they get off. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
The whole course of human history may depend on a change of heart in a single, solitary, even humble individual. For it is within the soul of the individual that the battle between good and evil is waged and ultimately won or lost. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
Confucius said, "To know that we know what we know, and that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
The greatest art is to shape the quality of the day. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
I wish to suggest that a man may be very industrious, and yet not spend his time well. There is no more fatal blunderer than he who consumes the greater part of his life getting his living. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
The greater part of what my neighbors call good I believe in my soul to be bad, and if I repent of anything, it is very likely to be my good behavior. What demon possessed me that I behaved so well? View quote
Henry David Thoreau
Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
Why should we live with such hurry and waste of life? (Henry David Thoreau)
Readers are plentiful; thinkers are rare. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
Happiness is like a butterfly: the more you chase it, the more it will elude you. But if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
Our legislators have not yet learned the comparative value of free-trade and of freedom, of union, and of rectitude, to a nation. They have no genius or talent for comparatively humble questions of taxation and finance, commerce and manufacturers and agriculture. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed, and in such desperate enterprises? If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. View quote
Henry David Thoreau