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Henry David Thoreau Quotes - Page 13

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Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end.

Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end.

Henry David Thoreau
Mean, Technology, Toys
Walden ch. 1 (1854)

In human intercourse the tragedy begins, not when there is misunderstanding about words, but when silence is not understood.

Henry David Thoreau
Sad, Live Life, Silence
Henry David Thoreau, Carl Hovde (1980). “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers”, p.278, Princeton University Press

Some interests have got a footing on the earth which we have not made sufficient allowance for.

Henry David Thoreau
Earth, Dogma, Made
Henry David Thoreau (2014). “A Week On The Concord And Merrimack Rivers (Annotated Edition)”, p.103, Jazzybee Verlag

The eye may see for the hand, but not for the mind.

Henry David Thoreau
Eye, Hands, Mind
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.286, Delphi Classics

All endeavor calls for the ability to tramp the last mile, shape the last plan, endure the last hours toil. The fight to the finish spirit is the one... characteristic we must posses if we are to face the future as finishers.

Henry David Thoreau
Perseverance, Future, Fighting

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.

Henry David Thoreau
Inspirational, Life, Success
Walden ch. 1 (1854)

All misfortune is but a stepping stone to fortune.

Henry David Thoreau
Inspirational, Smart, Yoga

Wherever a man goes, men will pursue him and paw him with their dirty institutions, and, if they can, constrain him to belong to their desperate odd-fellow society.

Henry David Thoreau
Dirty, Men, Atheism
'Walden' (1854) 'The Village'

There are moments when all anxiety and stated toil are becalmed in the infinite leisure and repose of nature.

Henry David Thoreau
Nature, Anxiety, Toil
Henry David Thoreau (2016). “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers”, p.88, Xist Publishing

Dreams are the touchstones of our character.

Henry David Thoreau
Love, Graduation, Dream
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers”, p.238, Courier Corporation

Not that the story need be long, but it will take a long while to make it short.

Henry David Thoreau
Writing, Long, Insightful
Letter to Harrison Blake, 16 Nov. 1857 See Pascal 1; Woodrow Wilson 25

Politics is the gizzard of society, full of gut and gravel.

Henry David Thoreau
Society, Politics, Gravel

A man had better starve at once than lose his innocence in the process of getting his bread.

Henry David Thoreau
Men, Bread, Innocence
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “The Essential Thoreau”, p.415, Simon and Schuster

We shall see but a little way if we require to understand what we see.

Henry David Thoreau
Deep Life, Understanding, Littles
Henry David Thoreau (2006). “Thoreau and the Art of Life: Precepts and Principles”, p.61, Heron Dance Press

All change is a miracle to contemplate, but it is a miracle which is taking place every instant.

Henry David Thoreau
Change, Nature, Business
Henry David Thoreau, Jeffrey S. Cramer (2007). “I to Myself: An Annotated Selection from the Journal of Henry D. Thoreau”, p.250, Yale University Press

We must walk consciously only part way toward our goal, and then leap in the dark to our success. What we do best or most perfectly is what we have most thoroughly learned by the longest practice, and at length it falls from us without our notice, as a leaf from a tree.

Henry David Thoreau
Success, Fall, Dark
Henry David Thoreau (1960). “H. D. Thoreau, a Writer's Journal”, p.198, Courier Corporation

If I choose to devote myself to certain labors which yield more real profit, though but little money, they may be inclined to look on me as an idler.

Henry David Thoreau
Real, Work, Yield
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “The Essential Thoreau”, p.409, Simon and Schuster

The squirrel that you kill in jest, dies in earnest.

Henry David Thoreau
Philosophical, Animal, Squirrels
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Quotable Thoreau: An A to Z Glossary of Inspiring Quotations from Henry David Thoreau”, p.92, BookBaby

Sell your clothes- keep your thoughts.

Henry David Thoreau
Clothes, Sells

Unjust laws exist: shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once?

Henry David Thoreau
Law, Unjust, Endeavor
Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.79, Penguin

Write while the heat is in you. The writer who postpones the recording of his thoughts uses an iron which has cooled to burn a hole with. He cannot inflame the minds of his audience.

Henry David Thoreau
Writing, Creativity, Iron
Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.137, Penguin

There is only one path to Heaven. On Earth, we call it Love.

Henry David Thoreau
Love, Heaven, Earth

What is human warfare but just this; an effort to make the laws of God and nature take sides with one party.

Henry David Thoreau
Peace, War, Party
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.2123, Delphi Classics

As the skies appear to a man, so is his mind. Some see only clouds there; some, prodigies and portents; some rarely look up at all; their heads, like the brutes,' are directed toward Earth. Some behold there serenity, purity, beauty ineffable. The world runs to see the panorama, when there is a panorama in the sky which few go to see.

Henry David Thoreau
Running, Men, Clouds
Henry David Thoreau, Barry Andrews (2005). “True Harvest: Readings from Henry David Thoreau for Every Day of the Year”, p.29, Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations

Reform keeps many scores of newspapers in its service, but not one man.

Henry David Thoreau
Men, Reform, Journalism
Henry David Thoreau (1942). “Civil Disobedience”, p.10, Hayes Barton Press

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