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Henry David Thoreau Quotes - Page 65

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The perception of beauty is a moral test.

The perception of beauty is a moral test.

Henry David Thoreau
Life, Beauty, Perception
Henry David Thoreau, John C. Broderick, Robert Sattelmeyer (1981). “Journal”, p.120, Princeton University Press

Knowledge does not come to us in details, but in flashes of light from heaven.

Henry David Thoreau
Inspiration, Knowledge, Light
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “The Essential Thoreau”, p.419, Simon and Schuster

Concord is just as idiotic as ever in relation to the spirits and their knockings. Most people here believe in a spiritual world ... in spirits which the very bullfrogs in our meadows would blackball. Their evil genius is seeing how low it can degrade them. The hooting of owls, the croaking of frogs, is celestial wisdom in comparison.

Henry David Thoreau
Spiritual, Wisdom, Believe
Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Familiar Letters (Annotated Edition)”, p.153, Jazzybee Verlag

The birds I heard today, which, fortunately, did not come within the scope of my science, sang as freshly as if it had been the first morning of creation.

Henry David Thoreau
Nature, Morning, Science
Henry David Thoreau (2017). “Early Spring in Massachusetts: From the Journal of Henry David Thoreau”, p.37, Library of Alexandria

We are made happy when reason can discover no occasion for it. The memory of some past moments is more persuasive than the experience of present ones. There have been visions of such breadth and brightness that these motes were invisible in their light.

Henry David Thoreau
Happiness, Laughter, Memories
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.1631, Delphi Classics

The cart before the horse is neither beautiful nor useful. Before we can adorn our houses with beautiful objects the walls must bestripped, and our lives must be stripped, and beautiful housekeeping and beautiful living laid for a foundation.

Henry David Thoreau
Beautiful, Horse, Wall

A man cannot be said to succeed in this life who does not satisfy one friend.

Henry David Thoreau
Life, Friendship, Success
Henry David Thoreau (2006). “Thoreau and the Art of Life: Precepts and Principles”, p.11, Heron Dance Press

The Heavens are as deep as our aspirations are high.

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

The slight reproach to which the virtue of patriotism is commonly liable, the noble are most likely to incur.

Henry David Thoreau
Patriotism, Noble, Virtue
Henry David Thoreau (1942). “Civil Disobedience”, p.8, Hayes Barton Press

We are always paid for our suspicion by finding what we suspect. [So why not suspect good rather than bad in events, people and life and thereby find it more?]

Henry David Thoreau
Gratitude, People, Events

Then at night the general stillness is more impressive than any sound, but occasionally you hear the note of an owl farther or nearer in the woods, and if near a lake, the semihuman cry of the loons at their unearthly revels.

Henry David Thoreau
Night, Lakes, Owl
Henry David Thoreau (2017). “Collected Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated): Philosophical and Autobiographical Books, Essays, Poetry, Translations, Biographies & Letters: Walden, Civil Disobedience, The Maine Woods, Cape Cod, Slavery in Massachusetts, Walking…”, p.677, e-artnow

Being a teacher is like being in jail; once it's on your record, you can never get rid of it.

Henry David Thoreau
Teacher, Jail, Records

Of what significance the light of day, if it is not the reflection of an inward dawn?--to what purpose is the veil of night withdrawn, if the morning reveals nothing to the soul? It is merely garish and glaring.

Henry David Thoreau
Inspirational, Morning, Reflection
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “The Selected Essays of Henry David Thoreau”, p.247, Simon and Schuster

We must walk consciously only part way toward our goal, and then leap in the dark to our success.

Henry David Thoreau
Motivational, Success, Congratulations
Henry David Thoreau, Barry Andrews (2005). “True Harvest: Readings from Henry David Thoreau for Every Day of the Year”, p.71, Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations

It is always singular, but encouraging, to meet with common sense in very old books, as the Heetopades of Veeshnoo Sarma; a playful wisdom which has eyes behind as well as before, and oversees itself. It asserts their health and independence of the experience of later times. This pledge of sanity cannot be spared in a book, that it sometimes pleasantly reflect upon itself.

Henry David Thoreau
Book, Eye, Common Sense
Henry David Thoreau (2016). “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers”, p.103, Xist Publishing

Listen to music religiously, as if it were the last strain you might hear.

Henry David Thoreau
Music, Might, Lasts
Henry David Thoreau, Odell Shepard (1961). “The Heart of Thoreau's Journals”, p.44, Courier Corporation

The first pleasant days of spring come out like a squirrel and go in again.

Henry David Thoreau
Spring, Squirrels, Firsts
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.2429, Delphi Classics

The highest condition of art is artlessness.

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

I am engaged to Concord and my own private pursuits by 10,000 ties, and it would be suicide to rend them.

Henry David Thoreau
Suicide, Ties, Independence
Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Familiar Letters (Annotated Edition)”, p.221, Jazzybee Verlag

I repeat that in this sense the most splendid court in Christendom is provincial, having authority to consult about Transalpine interests only, and not the affairs of Rome. A prætor or proconsul would suffice to settle the questions which absorb the attention of the English Parliament and the American Congress.

Henry David Thoreau
Government, Rome, Attention
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.1169, Delphi Classics

Far travel, very far travel, or travail, comes near to the worth of staying at home.

Henry David Thoreau
Travel, Home, Staying
Allen Clapp Thomas, American Antiquarian Society, Andrew McFarland Davis, Austin Samuel Garver, Edward Everett Hale (1904). “Mary Griffin and Her Creed”

In society, in the best institutions of men, it is easy to detect a certain precocity. When we should still be growing children, we are already little men. Give me a culture which imports much muck from the meadows, and deepens the soil,--not that which trusts to heating manures, and improved implements, and modes of culture only!

Henry David Thoreau
Nature, Children, Men
Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.408, Penguin

It is said that a rogue does not look you in the face, neither does an honest man look at you as if he had his reputation to establish.

Henry David Thoreau
Men, Doe, Looks
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “The Essential Thoreau”, p.496, Simon and Schuster

Today you may write a chapter on the advantages of traveling, and tomorrow you may write another chapter on the advantages of not traveling.

Henry David Thoreau
Travel, Home, Writing
Henry David Thoreau (1993). “A Year in Thoreau's Journal: 1851”, p.280, Penguin

It is possible to invent a house still more convenient and luxurious than we have...but shall we always study to obtain more of these things, and not sometimes to be content with less?

Henry David Thoreau
House, Study, Sometimes

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