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Henry David Thoreau Quotes - Page 49

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Alas! how little does the memory of these human inhabitants enhance the beauty of the landscape!

Alas! how little does the memory of these human inhabitants enhance the beauty of the landscape!

Henry David Thoreau
Beauty, Memories, Doe
Henry David Thoreau (2009). “Walden”, p.170, Cosimo, Inc.

God reigns when we take a liberal view, when a liberal view is presented to us.

Henry David Thoreau
Views, Literature, Reign
Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.361, Penguin

Nature and human life are as various as our several constitutions. Who shall say what prospect life offers to another?

Henry David Thoreau
Nature, Literature, Constitution
Henry David Thoreau (1995). “Walden, Or, Life in the Woods”, p.6, Courier Corporation

If a man constantly aspires is he not elevated?

Henry David Thoreau
Motivational, Men, Desire
Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.357, Penguin

There is always a present and extant life, be it better or worse, which all combine to uphold.

Henry David Thoreau
Literature, Life Is
Henry David Thoreau (2016). “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers”, p.90, Xist Publishing

Great men, unknown to their generation, have their fame among the great who have preceded them, and all true worldly fame subsides from their high estimate beyond the stars.

Henry David Thoreau
Stars, Men, Idols
Henry David Thoreau (2016). “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers”, p.242, Xist Publishing

A name pronounced is the recognition of the individual to whom it belongs. He who can pronounce my name aright, he can call me, and is entitled to my love and service.

Henry David Thoreau
Love, Names, Individuality
Henry David Thoreau (2016). “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers”, p.195, Xist Publishing

A minority is powerless while it conforms to the majority; it is not even a minority then; but it is irresistible when it clogs by its whole weight.

Henry David Thoreau
Power, Majority, Minorities
Henry David Thoreau (1942). “Civil Disobedience”, p.11, Hayes Barton Press

Be as the sailor who keeps the polestar in his eye. By so doing we may not arrive at our port within a calculable period, but we will maintain a true course.

Henry David Thoreau
Motivation, Eye, May

When my hoe tinkled against the stones, that music echoed to the woods and the sky, and was an accompaniment to my labor which yielded an instant and immeasurable crop. It was no longer beans that I hoed, nor I that hoed beans; and I remembered with as much pity as pride, if I remembered at all, my acquaintances who had gone to the city to attend the oratorios.

Henry David Thoreau
Pride, Sky, Cities
Henry David Thoreau (1882). “Walden”, p.247

Most people dread finding out when they come to die that they have never really lived.

Henry David Thoreau
People, Dread, Findings

The generative energy, which, when we are loose, dissipates and makes us unclean, when we are continent invigorates and inspires us. Chastity is the flowering of man; and what are called Genius, Heroism, Holiness, and the like, are but various fruits which succeed it.

Henry David Thoreau
Men, Inspire, Energy
Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Citizen Thoreau: Walden, Civil Disobedience, Life Without Principle, Slavery in Massachusetts, A Plea for Captain John Brown”, p.134, Graphic Arts Books

Many of the phenomena of Winter are suggestive of an inexpressible tenderness and fragile delicacy. We are accustomed to hear this king described as a rude and boisterous tyrant; but with the gentleness of a lover he adorns the tresses of Summer.

Henry David Thoreau
Summer, Kings, Winter
Henry David Thoreau (2008). “Walden, Civil Disobedience, and Other Writings: Authoritative Texts, Journal, Reviews and Posthumous Assessments, Criticism”, W W Norton & Company Incorporated

That devilish Iron Horse, whose ear-rending neigh is heard throughout the town, has muddied the Boiling Spring with his foot, and he it is that has browsed off all the woods on Walden shore, that Trojan horse, with a thousand men in his belly, introduced by mercenary Greeks! Where is the country's champion, the Moore of Moore Hall, to meet him at the Deep Cut and thrust an avenging lance between the ribs of the bloated pest?

Henry David Thoreau
Country, Horse, Spring
Henry David Thoreau (2016). “Walden”, p.139, Xist Publishing

Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient. The objections which have been brought against a standing army, and they are many and weighty, and deserve to prevail, may also at last be brought against a standing government.

Henry David Thoreau
Army, Government, May
Civil Disobedience (1849)

I respect not his labors, his farm where everything has its price, who would carry the landscape, who would carry his God, to market, if he could get anything for him; who goes to market for his god as it is; on whose farm nothing grows free, whose fields bear no crops, whose meadows no flowers, whose trees no fruits, but dollars.

Henry David Thoreau
God, Flower, Tree
Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.261, Penguin

I believe that what so saddens the reformer is not his sympathy with his fellows in distress, but, though he be the holiest son of God, is his private ail. Let this be righted, let the spring come to him, the morning rise over his couch, and he will forsake his generous companions without apology.

Henry David Thoreau
Sympathy, Morning, Spring
Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.194, Penguin

Must be out-of-doors enough to get experience of wholesome reality, as a ballast to thought and sentiment. Health requires this relaxation, this aimless life.

Henry David Thoreau
Life, Time, Health
Henry David Thoreau, Odell Shepard (1961). “The Heart of Thoreau's Journals”, p.100, Courier Corporation

As a snow-drift is formed where there is a lull in the wind, so, one would say, where there is a lull of truth, an institution springs up.

Henry David Thoreau
Spring, Wind, Snow
Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Citizen Thoreau: Walden, Civil Disobedience, Life Without Principle, Slavery in Massachusetts, A Plea for Captain John Brown”, p.226, Graphic Arts Books

When I go out of the house for a walk, uncertain as yet whither I will bend my steps, [I] submit myself to my instinct to decide for me.

Henry David Thoreau
House, Steps, Instinct
Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.398, Penguin

Is it not possible that an individual may be right and a government wrong? Are laws to be enforced simply because they were made? Or declared by any number of men to be good, if they are NOT good?

Henry David Thoreau
Men, Law, Numbers
Henry David Thoreau (2012). “Civil Disobedience and Other Essays”, p.47, Courier Corporation

What is commonly called friendship is only a little more honor among rogues.

Henry David Thoreau
Lost Friendship, Honor, Rogues

Sometimes we are inclined to class those who are once-and-a-half witted with the half-witted, because we appreciate only a third part of their wit.

Henry David Thoreau
Appreciation, Time, Class
Henry David Thoreau (2009). “Walden”, p.210, Cosimo, Inc.

It is very rare that you meet with obstacles in this world, which the humblest man has not faculties to surmount.

Henry David Thoreau
Strength, Men, World
Henry David Thoreau (2016). “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers”, p.130, Xist Publishing

When I would re-create myself, I seek the darkest wood, the thickest and most interminable and to the citizen, most dismal, swamp. I enter as a sacred place, a Sanctum sanctorum. There is the strength, the marrow, of Nature.

Henry David Thoreau
Strength, Nature, Gardening
Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.403, Penguin

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