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Henry David Thoreau Quotes - Page 54

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The boatmen appeared to lead an easy and contented life, and we thought that we should prefer their employment ourselves to many professions which are much more sought after. They suggested how few circumstances are

The boatmen appeared to lead an easy and contented life, and we thought that we should prefer their employment ourselves to many professions which are much more sought after. They suggested how few circumstances are necessary to the well-being and serenity of man, how indifferent all employments are, and that any may seem noble and poetic to the eyes of men, if pursued with sufficient buoyancy and freedom.

Henry David Thoreau
Freedom, Work, Eye
Henry David Thoreau (2016). “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers”, p.148, Xist Publishing

In all her products, Nature only develops her simplest germs. One would say that it was no great stretch of invention to create birds. The hawk which now takes his flight over the top of the wood was at first, perchance, only a leaf which fluttered in its aisles. From rustling leaves she came in the course of ages to the loftier flight and clear carol of the bird.

Henry David Thoreau
Nature, Bird, Age
Henry David Thoreau (2016). “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers”, p.112, Xist Publishing

All these sounds, the crowing of cocks, the baying of dogs, and the hum of insects at noon, are the evidence of nature's health orsound state.

Henry David Thoreau
Dog, Nature, Sound
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.45, Delphi Classics

Commerce is really as interesting as nature.

Henry David Thoreau
Nature, Interesting, Commerce
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.147, Delphi Classics

Nature has taken more care than the fondest parent for the education and refinement of her children. Consider the silent influencewhich flowers exert, no less upon the ditcher in the meadow than the lady in the bower. When I walk in the woods, I am reminded that a wise purveyor has been there before me; my most delicate experience is typified there.

Henry David Thoreau
Wise, Nature, Children
Henry David Thoreau (2017). “The Most Alive is the Wildest – Thoreau’s Complete Works on Living in Harmony with the Nature: Walden, Walking, Night and Moonlight, The Highland Light, A Winter Walk, The Maine Woods, A Walk to Wachusett, The Landlord, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, Autumnal Tints, Wild Apples…”, p.817, e-artnow

The civilized nations--Greece, Rome, England--have been sustained by the primitive forests which anciently rotted where they stand. They survive as long as the soil is not exhausted. Alas for human culture! little is to be expected of a nation, when the vegetable mould is exhausted, and it is compelled to make manure of the bones of its fathers. There the poet sustains himself merely by his own superfluous fat, and the philosopher comes down on his marrow-bones.

Henry David Thoreau
Nature, Father, Rome
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “The Selected Essays of Henry David Thoreau”, p.170, Simon and Schuster

But they who are unconcerned about the consequences of their actions are not therefore unconcerned about their actions.

Henry David Thoreau
Morality, Action, Unconcerned
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers”, p.115, Courier Corporation

Take Time by the forelock. It is also the safest part to take a serpent by.

Henry David Thoreau
Action, Take Time, Serpent
Henry David Thoreau (1866). “Cape Cod”, p.2

We must heap up a great pile of doing, for a small diameter of being.

Henry David Thoreau
Action, Existence
Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.366, Penguin

Every tree sends its fibres forth in search of the Wild. The cities import it at any price. Men plow and sail for it. From the forest and wilderness come the tonics and barks which brace mankind.

Henry David Thoreau
Men, Cities, Tree
Henry David Thoreau (2011). “The Natural History Essays”, p.112, Gibbs Smith

For the most part we stupidly confound one man with another. The dull distinguish only races or nations, or at most classes, but the wise man, individuals.

Henry David Thoreau
Wise, Men, Race
Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.110, Penguin

Men will tell you sometimes that "money's hard." That shows it was not made to eat, I say.... Some of those who sank with the steamer the other day found out that money was heavy too.

Henry David Thoreau
Money, Men, Sometimes
Henry David Thoreau, Bradford Torrey, Franklin Benjamin Sanborn (1906). “Familiar letters, ed. by F. J. Sanborn. Enl. ed”

There is something servile in the habit of seeking after a law which we may obey. We may study the laws of matter at and for our convenience, but a successful life knows no law.

Henry David Thoreau
Success, Freedom, Law
Henry David Thoreau (1992). “The Essays of Henry David Thoreau”, p.138, Rowman & Littlefield

I am accustomed to think very long of going anywhere,--am slow to move. I hope to hear a response of the oracle first.

Henry David Thoreau
Travel, Moving, Thinking
Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Familiar Letters (Annotated Edition)”, p.205, Jazzybee Verlag

Some show their kindness to the poor by employing them in their kitchens. Would they not be kinder if they employed themselves there?

Henry David Thoreau
Kindness, Kitchen, Charity
Henry David Thoreau (1995). “Walden, Or, Life in the Woods”, p.49, Courier Corporation

The strongest wind cannot stagger a Spirit; it is a Spirit's breath. A just man's purpose cannot be split on any Grampus or material rock, but itself will split rocks till it succeeds.

Henry David Thoreau
Determination, Character, Men
Henry David Thoreau (2008). “Cape Cod: Illustrated Edition of the American Classic”, p.11, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Your richest veins don't lie nearest the surface.

Henry David Thoreau
Lying, Character, Veins
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.1612, Delphi Classics

The outward is only the outside of that which is within. Men are not concealed under habits, but are revealed by them; they are their true clothes.

Henry David Thoreau
Character, Men, Clothes
Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.356, Penguin

Our poets have sung of wine, the product of a foreign plant which commonly they never saw, as if our own plants had no juice in them more than the singers.

Henry David Thoreau
Wine, Juice, Singers
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “The Selected Essays of Henry David Thoreau”, p.185, Simon and Schuster

Of all the men who were said to be my contemporaries, it seemed to me that John Brown was the only one who had not died.

Henry David Thoreau
Men, Dying, John Brown
Henry David Thoreau (1992). “The Essays of Henry David Thoreau”, p.72, Rowman & Littlefield

My spirits infallibly rise in proportion to the outward dreariness. Give me the ocean, the desert, or the wilderness!

Henry David Thoreau
Ocean, Giving, Desert
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “The Essential Thoreau”, p.355, Simon and Schuster

I have made a very rude translation of the Seven against Thebes, and Pindar too I have looked at, and wish he was better worth translating. I believe even the best things are not equal to their fame. Perhaps it would be better to translate fame itself,--or is not that what the poets themselves do? However, I have not done with Pindar yet.

Henry David Thoreau
Believe, Rude, Wish
Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Familiar Letters (Annotated Edition)”, p.83, Jazzybee Verlag

Translate a book a dozen times from one language to another, and what becomes of its style? Most books would be worn out and disappear in this ordeal. The pen which wrote it is soon destroyed, but the poem survives.

Henry David Thoreau
Book, Style, Would Be
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “The Essential Thoreau”, p.272, Simon and Schuster

I am not sure but I should betake myself in extremities to the liberal divinities of Greece, rather than to my country's God. Jehovah, though with us he has acquired new attributes, is more absolute and unapproachable, but hardly more divine, than Jove. He is not so much of a gentleman, not so gracious and catholic, he does not exert so intimate and genial an influence on nature, as many a god of the Greeks.

Henry David Thoreau
God, Country, Catholic
Henry David Thoreau (2017). “The Most Alive is the Wildest – Thoreau’s Complete Works on Living in Harmony with the Nature: Walden, Walking, Night and Moonlight, The Highland Light, A Winter Walk, The Maine Woods, A Walk to Wachusett, The Landlord, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, Autumnal Tints, Wild Apples…”, p.274, e-artnow

Man is an animal who more than any other can adapt himself to all climates and circumstances.

Henry David Thoreau
Change, Animal, Men
Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.187, Penguin

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