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Henry David Thoreau Quotes - Page 106

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As I came home through the woods with my string of fish, trailing my pole, it being now quite dark, I caught a glimpse of a woodchuck stealing across my path, and felt a strange thrill of savage delight, and was

As I came home through the woods with my string of fish, trailing my pole, it being now quite dark, I caught a glimpse of a woodchuck stealing across my path, and felt a strange thrill of savage delight, and was strongly tempted to seize and devour him raw; not that I was hungry then, except for that wildness which he represented.

Henry David Thoreau
Home, Dark, Woods
Henry David Thoreau (2000). “Walden and Other Writings: (A Modern Library E-Book)”, p.206, Modern Library

I have found it to be the most serious objection to coarse labors long continued, that they compelled me to eat and drink coarsely also.

Henry David Thoreau
Food, Long, Serious
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.441, Delphi Classics

Should not every apartment in which man dwells be lofty enough to create some obscurity overhead, where flickering shadows may play at evening about the rafters?

Henry David Thoreau
Home, Men, Play
Henry David Thoreau (2015). “Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience: Top American Literary”, p.150, 谷月社

Nowadays the host does not admit you to his hearth, but has got the mason to build one for yourself somewhere in his alley, and hospitality is the art of keeping you at the greatest distance.

Henry David Thoreau
Art, Distance, Doe
Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Citizen Thoreau: Walden, Civil Disobedience, Life Without Principle, Slavery in Massachusetts, A Plea for Captain John Brown”, p.147, Graphic Arts Books

Explore thyself. Herein are demanded the eye and the nerve.

Henry David Thoreau
Eye, Identity, Nerves
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.510, Delphi Classics

That virtue we appreciate is as much ours as another s. We see so much only as we possess.

Henry David Thoreau
Appreciate, Virtue
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.1983, Delphi Classics

In Adam's fall We sinned all. In the new Adam's rise, We shall all reach the skies.

Henry David Thoreau
Fall, Sky, Adam
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.1525, Delphi Classics

The American has dwindled into an Odd Fellow,-one who may be known by the development of his organ of gregariousness.

Henry David Thoreau
Development, May, Odd
Henry David Thoreau (1942). “Civil Disobedience”, p.7, Hayes Barton Press

If however the law is so promulgated that it of necessity makes you an agent of injustices against another, then I say to you ... break the law.

Henry David Thoreau
Law, Agents, Injustice

If you are chosen town clerk, forsooth, you cannot go to Tierra del Fuego this summer; but you may go to the land of infernal fire nevertheless.

Henry David Thoreau
Summer, Fire, Land
Henry David Thoreau (2016). “Walden”, p.227, Xist Publishing

Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient.

Henry David Thoreau
Government, Sometimes
Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Citizen Thoreau: Walden, Civil Disobedience, Life Without Principle, Slavery in Massachusetts, A Plea for Captain John Brown”, p.197, Graphic Arts Books

I do not judge men by anything they can do. Their greatest deed is the impression they make on me.

Henry David Thoreau
Men, Judging, Deeds
Henry David Thoreau, Odell Shepard (1961). “The Heart of Thoreau's Journals”, p.22, Courier Corporation

We soon get through with Nature. She excites an expectation which she cannot satisfy. The merest child which has rambled into a copsewood dreams of a wildness so wild and strange and inexhaustible as Nature can never show him.

Henry David Thoreau
Dream, Nature, Children
Henry David Thoreau (1999). “Material Faith: Thoreau on Science”, p.62, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

The best poets, after all, exhibit only a tame and civil side of nature. They have not seen the west side of any mountain.

Henry David Thoreau
Mountain, West, Sides
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.2088, Delphi Classics

I know of no redeeming qualities in myself but a sincere love for some things, and when I am reproved I fall back on to this ground.

Henry David Thoreau
Fall, Quality, Sincere
Henry David Thoreau, Barry Andrews (2005). “True Harvest: Readings from Henry David Thoreau for Every Day of the Year”, p.107, Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations

If anything ail a man, so that he does not perform his functions, if he have a pain in his bowels even,- for that is the seat of sympathy,-he forthwith sets about reforming the world.

Henry David Thoreau
Pain, Men, Reform
Henry David Thoreau (2016). “Walden”, p.55, Xist Publishing

He is the rich man, and enjoys the fruit of his riches, who summer and winter forever can find delight in his own thoughts.

Henry David Thoreau
Summer, Winter, Men
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.263, Delphi Classics

It is impossible to give a soldier a good education without making him a deserter. His natural foe is the government that drills him.

Henry David Thoreau
War, Government, Giving
Henry David Thoreau, David Gross (2007). “The Price of Freedom: Political Philosophy from Thoreau's Journals”, p.63, David M Gross

I must walk toward Oregon, and not toward Europe. And that way the nation is moving, and I may say that mankind progress from east to west. We go eastward to realize history and study the works of art and literature, retracing the steps of the race; we go westward as into the future, with a spirit of enterprise and adventure.

Henry David Thoreau
Art, Moving, Adventure
Henry David Thoreau (2015). “Walking: Top Essays”, p.7, 谷月社

There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root, and it may be that he who bestows the largest amount of time and money on the needy is doing the most by his mode of life to produce that misery which he strives in vain to relieve.

Henry David Thoreau
Sad, Roots, Evil
Henry David Thoreau (1882). “Walden”, p.120

I lose my respect for the man who can make the mystery of sex the subject of a coarse jest, yet when you speak earnestly and seriously on the subject, is silent.

Henry David Thoreau
Sex, Men, Mystery
Henry David Thoreau, Odell Shepard (1961). “The Heart of Thoreau's Journals”, p.84, Courier Corporation

One little bird not larger than a sparrow, it may have been a Phalarope, would alight on the turbulent surface where the breakers were five or six feet high, and float buoyantly there like a duck, cunningly taking to its wings and lifting itself a few feet through the air over the foaming crest of each breaker, but sometimes outriding safely a considerable billow which hid it some seconds, when its instinct told it that it would not break. It was a little creature thus to sport with the ocean, but it was as perfect a success in its way as the breakers in theirs.

Henry David Thoreau
Sports, Ocean, Air
Henry David Thoreau (2008). “Cape Cod: Illustrated Edition of the American Classic”, p.102, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Every ambitious would-be empire, clarions it abroad that she is conquering the world to bring it peace, security and freedom, and it is sacrificing her sons only for the most noble and humanitarian purposes. That is a lie; and it is an ancient lie, yet generations still rise and believe it.

Henry David Thoreau
Lying, Believe, Son

To say that a man is your Friend, means commonly no more than this, that he is not your enemy. Most contemplate only what would be the accidental and trifling advantages of Friendship, as that the Friend can assist in time of need by his substance, or his influence, or his counsel. Even the utmost goodwill and harmony and practical kindness are not sufficient for Friendship, for Friends do not live in harmony merely, as some say, but in melody.

Henry David Thoreau
Friends, Kindness, Mean
Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.110, Penguin

If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of government, let it go, let it go: perchance it will wear smooth

Henry David Thoreau
Government, Let It Go, Machines
Civil Disobedience (1849) See Savio 1

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