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Henry David Thoreau Quotes - Page 43

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Most men appear never to have considered what a house is, and are actually though needlessly poor all their lives because they think that they must have such a one as their neighbors have. ... Shall we always study to

Most men appear never to have considered what a house is, and are actually though needlessly poor all their lives because they think that they must have such a one as their neighbors have. ... Shall we always study to obtain more, and not sometimes be content with less?

Henry David Thoreau
Men, Thinking, House
Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Citizen Thoreau: Walden, Civil Disobedience, Life Without Principle, Slavery in Massachusetts, A Plea for Captain John Brown”, p.30, Graphic Arts Books

Every man will be a poet if he can; otherwise a philosopher or man of science. This proves the superiority of the poet.

Henry David Thoreau
Science, Men, Philosopher
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Quotable Thoreau: An A to Z Glossary of Inspiring Quotations from Henry David Thoreau”, p.77, BookBaby

Truth, Goodness, Beauty - those celestial thrins,Continually are born; e'en now the Universe,With thousand throats, and eke with greener smiles,Its joy confesses at their recent birth.

Henry David Thoreau
Joy, Birth, Goodness
Henry David Thoreau (2006). “Thoreau and the Art of Life: Precepts and Principles”, p.73, Heron Dance Press

The hounding of a dog pursuing a fox or other animal in the horizon may have first suggested the notes of the hunting-horn to alternate with and relieve the lungs of the dog. This natural bugle long resounded in the woods of the ancient world before the horn was invented.

Henry David Thoreau
Music, Dog, Animal
Henry David Thoreau (2004). “Walden and Other Writings”, p.44, Bantam Classics

If there were one who lived wholly without the use of money, the State itself would hesitate to demand it of him. But the rich man--not to make any invidious comparison--is always sold to the institution which makes him rich.... Thus his moral ground is taken from under his feet.

Henry David Thoreau
Money, Taken, Men

You may raise enough money to tunnel a mountain, but you cannot raise money enough to hire a man who is minding his own business.

Henry David Thoreau
Money, Men, Tunnels
Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Citizen Thoreau: Walden, Civil Disobedience, Life Without Principle, Slavery in Massachusetts, A Plea for Captain John Brown”, p.216, Graphic Arts Books

Music is perpetual, and only the hearing is intermittent.

Henry David Thoreau
Music, Hearing, Intermittent

I have heard of a man lost in the woods and dying of famine and exhaustion at the foot of a tree, whose loneliness was relieved by the grotesque visions with which, owing to bodily weakness, his diseased imagination surrounded him, and which he believed to be real. So also, owing to bodily and mental health and strength, we may be continually cheered by a like but more normal and natural society, and come to know that we are never alone.

Henry David Thoreau
Real, Loneliness, Men
Henry David Thoreau (2012). “Walden; Or, Life in the Woods”, p.89, Courier Corporation

I had not lived there a week before my feet wore a path from my door to the pond-side; and though it is five or six years since I trod it, it is still quite distinct. It is true, I fear that others may have fallen into it, and so helped to keep it open. The surface of the earth is soft and impressible by the feet of men; and so with the paths which the mind travels. How worn and dusty, then, must be the highways of the world, how deep the ruts of tradition and conformity!

Henry David Thoreau
Men, Doors, Years
Henry David Thoreau (2010). “Walden”, p.300, Bibliolis Books

My desire for knowledge is intermittent; but my desire to bathe my head in atmospheres unknown to my feet is perennial and constant. The highest that we can attain to is not Knowledge, but Sympathy with Intelligence. I do not know that this higher knowledge amounts to anything more definite than a novel and grand surprise on a sudden revelation of the insufficiency of all that we called Knowledge before,—a discovery that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in our philosophy.

Henry David Thoreau
Philosophy, Feet, Discovery
Henry David Thoreau (2015). “Walking”, p.26, Sheba Blake Publishing

Rise free from care before the dawn and seek adventure. Let the noon find you by other lakes, and the night overtake thee everywhere at home. There are no larger fields than these, no worthier games than may here be played.

Henry David Thoreau
Inspiring, Home, Adventure
Henry David Thoreau (2016). “Walden”, p.149, Xist Publishing

Why level downward to our dullest perception always, and praise that as common sense? The commonest sense is the sense of men asleep, which they express by snoring.

Henry David Thoreau
Men, Common Sense, Perception
1854 Walden, or Life in the Woods,'Conclusion'.

Science with its retorts would have put me to sleep; it was the opportunity to be ignorant that I improved. It suggested to me that there was something to be seen if one had eyes. It made a believer of me more than before. I believed that the woods were not tenantless, but choke-full of honest spirits as good as myself any day,--not an empty chamber, in which chemistry was left to work alone, but an inhabited house,--and for a few moments I enjoyed fellowship with them.

Henry David Thoreau
Nature, Sleep, Eye
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.621, Delphi Classics

How can a man be satisfied to entertain an opinion merely, and enjoy it? Is there any enjoyment in it, if his opinion is that he is aggrieved? If you are cheated out of a single dollar by your neighbor, you do not rest satisfied with knowing that you are cheated, or with saying that you are cheated, or even with petitioning him to pay you your due; but you take effectual steps at once to obtain the full amount, and see that you are never cheated again.

Henry David Thoreau
Men, Knowing, Dollars
Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.79, Penguin

Could slavery suggest a more complete servility than some of these journals exhibit? Is there any dust which their conduct does not lick, and make fouler still with its slime?

Henry David Thoreau
Dust, Doe, Slavery
Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Citizen Thoreau: Walden, Civil Disobedience, Life Without Principle, Slavery in Massachusetts, A Plea for Captain John Brown”, p.233, Graphic Arts Books

First, there is the power of the Wind, constantly exerted over the globe... Here is an almost incalculable power at our disposal, yet how trifling the use we make of it.

Henry David Thoreau
Wind, Energy, Use
Henry David Thoreau (1992). “The Essays of Henry David Thoreau”, p.5, Rowman & Littlefield

The thinnest yellow light of November is more warming and exhilarating than any wine they tell of. The mite which November contributes becomes equal in value to the bounty of July.

Henry David Thoreau
Wine, Light, July
Henry David Thoreau, Jeffrey S. Cramer (2007). “I to Myself: An Annotated Selection from the Journal of Henry D. Thoreau”, p.347, Yale University Press

It would be well, perhaps, if we were to spend more of our days and nights without any obstruction between us and the celestial bodies, if the poet did not speak so much from under a roof, or the saint dwell there so long. Birds do not sing in caves, nor do doves cherish their innocence in dovecots.

Henry David Thoreau
Night, Long, Community
Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.168, Penguin

You must love the crust of the earth on which you dwell more than the sweet crust of any bread or cake. You must be able to extract nutriment out of a sand-heap. You must have so good an appetite as this, else you will live in vain

Henry David Thoreau
Sweet, Cake, Earth
Henry David Thoreau, Odell Shepard (1961). “The Heart of Thoreau's Journals”, p.192, Courier Corporation

When will the world learn that a million men are of no importance compared with one man?

Henry David Thoreau
Men, Liberty, World
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Quotable Thoreau: An A to Z Glossary of Inspiring Quotations from Henry David Thoreau”, p.64, BookBaby

Why should we live with such hurry and waste of life? We are determined to be starved before we are hungry.

Henry David Thoreau
Time, Live In The Moment, Waste
Henry David Thoreau (1995). “Walden, Or, Life in the Woods”, p.60, Courier Corporation

It's not enough to be busy.

Henry David Thoreau
Action, Busy, Enough
Henry David Thoreau (2015). “Thoreau on Nature: Sage Words on Finding Harmony with the Natural World”, p.14, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

How few things can a man measure with the tape of his understanding ; How many greater things might he be seeing in the meanwhile.

Henry David Thoreau
Failure, Men, Understanding
Henry David Thoreau (1993). “A Year in Thoreau's Journal: 1851”, p.36, Penguin

As naturally as the oak bears an acorn and the vine a gourd, man bears a poem, either spoken or done.

Henry David Thoreau
Men, Gourds, Vines
Henry David Thoreau (1873). “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers”, p.99

Books are the carriers of civilization. Without books, history is silent.

Henry David Thoreau
Book, Literature History, Civilization

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