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Henry David Thoreau Quotes - Page 41

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Humor, however broad and genial, takes a narrower view than enthusiasm.

Humor, however broad and genial, takes a narrower view than enthusiasm.

Henry David Thoreau
Funny, Humor, Views
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.277, Delphi Classics

The art of life, of a poet's life, is, not having anything to do, to do something.

Henry David Thoreau
Life, Art, Life Is
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Quotable Thoreau: An A to Z Glossary of Inspiring Quotations from Henry David Thoreau”, p.17, BookBaby

I heartily accept the motto, "That government is best which governs least"; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically.

Henry David Thoreau
Government, Transcendentalism, Anarchist
Civil Disobedience (1849) See Ralph Waldo Emerson 29; O'Sullivan 1; Shipley 1

A truly good book is something as wildly natural and primitive, mysterious and marvelous, ambrosial and fertile as a fungus or a lichen.

Henry David Thoreau
Book, Mysterious, Natural
1850 Journal entry,16 Nov. In Bradford Torrey and F H Allen (eds) The Journals of Henry David Thoreau (1906).

It is remarkable, but on the whole, perhaps, not to be lamented, that the world is so unkind to a new book. Any distinguished traveler who comes to our shores is likely to get more dinners and speeches of welcome than he can well dispose of, but the best books, if noticed at all, meet with coldness and suspicion, or, what is worse, gratuitous, off-hand criticism.

Henry David Thoreau
Book, Reading, Hands
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “The Selected Essays of Henry David Thoreau”, p.77, Simon and Schuster

The science of Humboldt is one thing, poetry is another thing. The poet to-day, notwithstanding all the discoveries of science, and the accumulated learning of mankind, enjoys no advantage over Homer.

Henry David Thoreau
Science, Discovery, Poetry
Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.405, Penguin

However much we admire the orator's occasional bursts of eloquence, the noblest written words are commonly as far behind or abovethe fleeting spoken language as the firmament with its stars is behind the clouds.

Henry David Thoreau
Stars, Clouds, Fleeting
Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Citizen Thoreau: Walden, Civil Disobedience, Life Without Principle, Slavery in Massachusetts, A Plea for Captain John Brown”, p.68, Graphic Arts Books

To anticipate, not the sunrise and the dawn merely, but, if possible, Nature herself! How many mornings, summer and winter, before yet any neighbor was stirring about his business, have I been about mine...So many autumn, ay, and winter days, spent outside the town, trying to hear what was in the wind, to hear and carry it express! I well-nigh sunk all my capital in it, and lost my own breath into the bargain, running in the face of it.

Henry David Thoreau
Summer, Running, Morning

So our human life but dies down to its root, and still puts forth its green blade to eternity.

Henry David Thoreau
Attitude, Positive Thinking, Roots
Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Citizen Thoreau: Walden, Civil Disobedience, Life Without Principle, Slavery in Massachusetts, A Plea for Captain John Brown”, p.183, Graphic Arts Books

It seemed to me that man himself was like a half-emptied bottle of pale ale, which Time had drunk so far, yet stoppled tight for a while, and drifting about in the ocean of circumstances, but destined ere-long to mingle with the surrounding waves, or be spilled amid the sands of a distant shore.

Henry David Thoreau
Ocean, Men, Long
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.791, Delphi Classics

The body can feed the body only.

Henry David Thoreau
Body
Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson (1865). “Letters to Various Persons”, p.47

I believe that the mind can be permanently profaned by the habit of attending to trivial things, so that all our thoughts shall be tinged with triviality.

Henry David Thoreau
Believe, Mind, Habit
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “The Essential Thoreau”, p.418, Simon and Schuster

The animal merely makes a bed, which he warms with his body in a sheltered place; but man, having discovered fire, boxes up some air in a spacious apartment, and warms that, instead of robbing himself, makes that his bed, in which he can move about divested of more cumbrous clothing, maintain a kind of summer in the midst of winter, and by means of windows even admit the light and with a lamp lengthen out the day.

Henry David Thoreau
Summer, Moving, Mean
Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Citizen Thoreau: Walden, Civil Disobedience, Life Without Principle, Slavery in Massachusetts, A Plea for Captain John Brown”, p.152, Graphic Arts Books

Whatever your sex or position, life is a battle in which you are to show your pluck, and woe be to the coward. Whether passed on a bed of sickness or a tented field, it is ever the same fair play and admits no foolish distinction. Despair and postponement are cowardice and defeat. Men were born to succeed, not to fail.

Henry David Thoreau
Courage, Sex, Men
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Quotable Thoreau: An A to Z Glossary of Inspiring Quotations from Henry David Thoreau”, p.59, BookBaby

When I read some of the rules for speaking and writing the English language correctly, I think any fool can make a rule, and every fool will mind it.

Henry David Thoreau
Writing, Thinking, Mind
Henry David Thoreau, Odell Shepard (1961). “The Heart of Thoreau's Journals”, p.213, Courier Corporation

Silence is the universal refuge, the sequel to all dull discourses and all foolish acts, a balm to our every chagrin, as welcome after satiety as after disappointment

Henry David Thoreau
Disappointment, Silence, Dull
Henry David Thoreau (2014). “The Illustrated "A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers"”, p.392, Princeton University Press

A man's interest in a single bluebird is worth more than a complete but dry list of the fauna and flora of a town.

Henry David Thoreau
Men, Lists, Towns
Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Familiar Letters (Annotated Edition)”, p.261, Jazzybee Verlag

The only sin in the world is ignorance.

Henry David Thoreau
Ignorance, World, Sin

Let every man make known what kind of government would command his respect, and that will be one step toward obtaining it.

Henry David Thoreau
Respect, Men, Steps
Henry David Thoreau (1942). “Civil Disobedience”, p.3, Hayes Barton Press

The stars are the apexes of what wonderful triangles! What distant and different beings in the various mansions of the universe are contemplating the same one at the same moment!

Henry David Thoreau
Stars, Different, Triangles
Henry David Thoreau (2012). “Walden; Or, Life in the Woods”, p.6, Courier Corporation

When I hear music, I fear no danger. I am invulnerable.

Henry David Thoreau
Music, Fear, Danger
Henry David Thoreau (2006). “Thoreau and the Art of Life: Precepts and Principles”, p.13, Heron Dance Press

They were pleasant spring days, in which the winter of man's discontent was thawing as well as the earth, and the life that had lain torpid began to stretch itself.

Henry David Thoreau
Spring, Winter, Men
Henry David Thoreau (1995). “Walden, Or, Life in the Woods”, p.26, Courier Corporation

What men call social virtues, good fellowship, is commonly but the virtue of pigs in a litter, which lie close together to keep each other warm.

Henry David Thoreau
Lying, Men, Pigs
Henry David Thoreau, Odell Shepard (1961). “The Heart of Thoreau's Journals”, p.100, Courier Corporation

The kindness I have longest remembered has been of this sort, the sort unsaid; so far behind the speaker's lips that almost it already lay in my heart. It did not have far to go to be communicated.

Henry David Thoreau
Inspirational, Children, Kindness
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.1644, Delphi Classics

Friendship is never established as an understood relation. It is a miracle which requires constant proofs. It is an exercise of the purest imagination and of the rarest faith!

Henry David Thoreau
Friendship, Exercise, Imagination
Henry David Thoreau (2006). “Thoreau and the Art of Life: Precepts and Principles”, p.9, Heron Dance Press

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