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Henry David Thoreau Quotes - Page 17

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Poetry cannot breathe in the scholar's atmosphere.

Poetry cannot breathe in the scholar's atmosphere.

Henry David Thoreau
Atmosphere, Breathe, Scholar
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.2097, Delphi Classics

I have met with but one or two persons in the course of my life who understood the art of Walking, that is, of taking walks - who had the genius, so to speak, for sauntering: which word is beautifully derived "from idle people who roved about the country, in the Middle Ages, and asked for charity, under the pretense of going à la Sainte Terre," to the Holy Land, till the children exclaimed, "There goes a Sainte-Terrer," a Saunterer, a Holy-Lander.

Henry David Thoreau
Country, Art, Children

We now no longer camp as for a night, but have settled down on earth and forgotten heaven.

Henry David Thoreau
Night, Heaven, Camping
Henry David Thoreau (1882). “Walden”, p.61

What we need to know in any case is very simple.

Henry David Thoreau
Wisdom, Knowledge, Simple
Henry David Thoreau (2016). “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers”, p.90, Xist Publishing

For the most part we allow only outlying and transient circumstances to make our occasions. They are, in fact, the cause of our distraction.

Henry David Thoreau
Change, Events, Causes
Henry David Thoreau (2016). “Walden”, p.97, Xist Publishing

That we have but little faith is not sad, but that we have little faithfulness. By faithfulness faith is earned.

Henry David Thoreau
Faith, Loyalty, Littles
Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Familiar Letters (Annotated Edition)”, p.133, Jazzybee Verlag

For what are the classics but the noblest thoughts of man? They are the only oracles which are not decayed, and there are such answers to the most modern inquiry in them as Delphi and Dodona never gave. We might as well omit to study Nature because she is old.

Henry David Thoreau
Book, Men, Inquiry
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.365, Delphi Classics

When the reptile is attacked at one mouth of his burrow, he shows himself at another.

Henry David Thoreau
Reptiles, Mouths, Sin
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “The Essential Thoreau”, p.131, Simon and Schuster

Tis now the twenty-third of march, And this warm sun takes out the starch Of winter's pinafore - Methinks The Very pasture gladly drinks A health to spring, and while it sips It faintly smacks a myriad lips.

Henry David Thoreau
Spring, Winter, Twenties
Elizabeth Hall Witherell, Henry David Thoreau (1979). “The Poetry of Henry David Thoreau: A Selected Critical Edition”

I sat at a table where were rich food and wine in abundance, and obsequious attendance, but sincerity and truth were not; and I went away hungry from the inhospitable board.

Henry David Thoreau
Truth, Wine, Boards
Henry David Thoreau (2009). “Walden”, p.214, Cosimo, Inc.

A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind.

Henry David Thoreau
Games, Despair, Amusement
Henry David Thoreau (1882). “Walden”, p.15

The most alive is the wildest.

Henry David Thoreau
Alive, Wildness
Henry David Thoreau (2015). “Walking: Top Essays”, p.11, 谷月社

It is pitiful when a man bears a name for convenience merely, who has earned neither name nor fame.

Henry David Thoreau
Men, Names, Bears
Henry David Thoreau (2015). “Walking: Top Essays”, p.15, 谷月社

Hate can pardon more than love.

Henry David Thoreau
Hate, Pardon, Hostility
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.1138, Delphi Classics

The effect of a good government is to make life more valuable; of a bad one, to make it less valuable.

Henry David Thoreau
Government, Justice, Valuable
Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson (1866). “A Yankee in Canada: With Anti-slavery and Reform Papers”, p.113

Resign yourself to the influence of the earth.

Henry David Thoreau
Earth, Influence
Henry David Thoreau, Odell Shepard (1961). “The Heart of Thoreau's Journals”, p.119, Courier Corporation

I have seen some who did not know when to turn aside their eyes in meeting yours. A truly confident and magnanimous spirit is wiser than to contend for the mastery in such encounters. Serpents alone conquer by the steadiness of their gaze. My friend looks me in the face and sees me, that is all.

Henry David Thoreau
Friendship, Eye, Snakes
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “The Essential Thoreau”, p.496, Simon and Schuster

In my walks I would fain return to my senses.

Henry David Thoreau
Return, Walks, Walking
Henry David Thoreau (2016). “Essays of Henry David Thoreau - Walking”, p.8, Editora Dracaena

Every path but your own is the path of fate. Keep on your own track, then.

Henry David Thoreau
Trust, Fate, Track
Henry David Thoreau (2004). “Walden: 150th Anniversary Illustrated Edition of the American Classic”, p.115, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

I am alarmed when it happens that I have walked a mile into the woods bodily, without getting there in spirit. In my afternoon walk I would fain forget all my morning occupations and my obligations to Society. But it sometimes happens that I cannot easily shake off the village. The thought of some work will run in my head and I am not where my body is - I am out of my senses. In my walks I would fain return to my senses. What business have I in the woods, if I am thinking of something out of the woods?

Henry David Thoreau
Running, Morning, Thinking
Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.395, Penguin

Any sincere thought is irresistible.

Henry David Thoreau
Thinking, Sincerity, Sincere
Henry David Thoreau (2012). “Thoreau's Book of Quotations”, p.12, Courier Corporation

When my legs begin to move, the thoughts begin to flow.

Henry David Thoreau
Moving, Legs, Flow

The most domestic cat, which has lain on a rug all her days, appears quite at home in the woods, and, by her sly and stealthy behavior, proves herself more native there than the regular inhabitants.

Henry David Thoreau
Home, Cat, Woods
Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Citizen Thoreau: Walden, Civil Disobedience, Life Without Principle, Slavery in Massachusetts, A Plea for Captain John Brown”, p.141, Graphic Arts Books

I should say that the useful results of science had accumulated, but that there had been no accumulation of knowledge, strictly speaking, for posterity; for knowledge is to be acquired only by a corresponding experience. How can we know what we are told merely? Each man can interpret another's experience only by his own.

Henry David Thoreau
Knowledge, Science, Men
"Journeys, Adventures & Life in Harmony with Nature".

Keep up the fires of thought, and all will go well.

Henry David Thoreau
Confidence, Thoughtful, Thinking
Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson (1865). “Letters to Various Persons”, p.180

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