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Henry David Thoreau Quotes - Page 70

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I will not allow mere names to make distinctions for me, but still see men in herds for all them.

I will not allow mere names to make distinctions for me, but still see men in herds for all them.

Henry David Thoreau
Men, Names, Herds
Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.407, Penguin

At present our only true names are nicknames.

Henry David Thoreau
Names, Nicknames
Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.407, Penguin

I have hardly begun to live on Staten Island yet; but, like the man who, when forbidden to tread on English ground, carried Scottish ground in his boots, I carry Concord ground in my boots and in my hat,--and am I not made of Concord dust? I cannot realize that it is the roar of the sea I hear now, and not the wind in Walden woods. I find more of Concord, after all, in the prospect of the sea, beyond Sandy Hook, than in the fields and woods.

Henry David Thoreau
Men, Islands, Dust
Henry David Thoreau (2017). “HENRY DAVID THOREAU – The Man, The Philosopher & The Trailblazer (Illustrated): Biographies, Memoirs, Autobiographical Books & Personal Letters (Including Walden, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, The Maine Woods, Cape Cod, A Yankee in Canada…)”, p.1230, e-artnow

I am not responsible for the successful working of the machinery of society.

Henry David Thoreau
Responsibility, Successful, Independence
Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.83, Penguin

The frontiers are not east or west, north or south; but wherever a man fronts a fact, though that fact be a neighbor, there is anunsettled wilderness between him and Canada, between him and the setting sun, or, farther still, between him and it. Let him build himself a log house with the bark on where he is, fronting IT, and wage there an Old French war for seven or seventy years, with Indians and Rangers, or whatever else may come between him and the reality, and save his scalp if he can.

Henry David Thoreau
War, Reality, Men
Henry David Thoreau (2014). “A Week On The Concord And Merrimack Rivers (Annotated Edition)”, p.257, Jazzybee Verlag

In sane moments we regard only the facts, the case that is.

Henry David Thoreau
Facts, Sanity, Moments
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “The Essential Thoreau”, p.189, Simon and Schuster

The heroes and discoverers have found true more than was previously believed, only when they were expecting and dreaming of something more than their contemporaries dreamed of, or even themselves discovered, that is, when they were in a frame of mind fitted to behold the truth. Referred to the world's standard, they are always insane. Even savages have indirectly surmised as much.

Henry David Thoreau
Dream, Hero, Discovery
Henry David Thoreau (1866). “Cape Cod”, p.110

And pray what more can a reasonable man desire, in peaceful times, in ordinary noons, than a sufficient number of ears of green sweet corn boiled, with the addition of salt?

Henry David Thoreau
Sweet, Men, Numbers
Henry David Thoreau, Nancy L. Rosenblum (1996). “Thoreau: Political Writings”, p.66, Cambridge University Press

In civilization, as in a southern latitude, man degenerates at length, and yields to the incursion of more northern tribes.

Henry David Thoreau
Men, Yield, Civilization
Henry David Thoreau (2016). “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers”, p.39, Xist Publishing

I was awakened at midnight by some heavy, low-flying bird, probably a loon, flapping by close over my head, along the shore. So, turning the other side of my half-clad body to the fire, I sought slumber again.

Henry David Thoreau
Fire, Bird, Flying
Henry David Thoreau (1873). “The Maine Woods”, p.230

The echo is, to some extent, an original sound, and therein is the magic and charm of it. It is not merely a repetition of what was worth repeating in the bell, but partly the voice of the wood; the same trivial words and notes sung by a wood-nymph.

Henry David Thoreau
Echoes, Voice, Nymphs
Henry David Thoreau (2016). “Walden”, p.89, Xist Publishing

The Fitchburg Railroad touches the pond about a hundred rods south of where I dwell. I usually go to the village along its causeway, and am, as it were, related to society by this link. The men on the freight trains, who go over the whole length of the road, bow to me as to an old acquaintance, they pass me so often, and apparently they take me for an employee; and so I am. I too would fain be a track-repairer somewhere in the orbit of the earth.

Henry David Thoreau
Men, Track, Ponds
Henry David Thoreau (2017). “Walden and on the Duty of Civil Disobedience”, p.98, Library of Alexandria

Many have believed that Walden reached quite through to the other side of the globe.

Henry David Thoreau
Sides, Walden Pond, Globes
Henry David Thoreau (2015). “Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience: Top American Literary”, p.176, 谷月社

The golden mean in ethics, as in physics, is the centre of the system and that about which all revolve, and though to a distant and plodding planet it be an uttermost extreme, yet one day, when that planet's year is completed, it will be found to be central.

Henry David Thoreau
Mean, Years, One Day
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.930, Delphi Classics

Biography, too, is liable to the same objection; it should be autobiography. Let us not, as the Germans advise, endeavor to go abroad and vex our bowels that we may be somebody else to explain him. If I am not I, who will be?

Henry David Thoreau
Vex, May, Biographies
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers”, p.126, Courier Corporation

The Great Snow! How cheerful it is to hear of!

Henry David Thoreau
Snow, Cheerful
Henry David Thoreau (2015). “Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience: Top American Literary”, p.164, 谷月社

The man who thrusts his manners upon me does as if he were to insist on introducing me to his cabinet of curiosities, when I wished to see himself.

Henry David Thoreau
Men, Curiosity, Cabinets
Henry David Thoreau (2012). “Civil Disobedience and Other Essays”, p.88, Courier Corporation

Morning brings back the heroic ages.

Henry David Thoreau
Morning, Age, Heroic
Henry David Thoreau (1882). “Walden”, p.140

Though the words Canada East on the map stretch over many rivers and lakes and unexplored wildernesses, the actual Canada, which might be the colored portion of the map, is but a little clearing on the banks of the river, which one of those syllables would more than cover.

Henry David Thoreau
Rivers, Lakes, Might
Henry David Thoreau (2016). “A Yankee in Canada”, p.32, Graphic Arts Books

Every man is entitled to come to Cattle-Show, even a transcendentalist; and for my part I am more interested in the men than in the cattle.

Henry David Thoreau
Men, Transcendentalism, He Man
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.1225, Delphi Classics

While the very inhabitants of New England were thus fabling about the country a hundred miles inland, which was a terra incognitato them,... Champlain, the first Governor of Canada,... had already gone to war against the Iroquois in their forest forts, and penetrated to the Great Lakes and wintered there, before a Pilgrim had heard of New England.

Henry David Thoreau
Country, War, Lakes

There are theoretical reformers at all times, and all the world over, living on anticipation.

Henry David Thoreau
Time, Reform, World
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.106, Delphi Classics

I love reform better than its modes.

Henry David Thoreau
Reform
Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.357, Penguin

Why do you ever mend your clothes, unless that, wearing them, you may mend your ways. Let us sing.

Henry David Thoreau
Clothes, Reform, May
Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Familiar Letters (Annotated Edition)”, p.277, Jazzybee Verlag

This fair homestead has fallen to us, and how little have we done to improve it, how little have we cleared and hedged and ditched! We are too inclined to go hence to a "better land," without lifting a finger, as our farmers are moving to the Ohio soil; but would it not be more heroic and faithful to till and redeem this New England soil of the world?

Henry David Thoreau
Moving, Ohio, Land
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “The Essential Thoreau”, p.221, Simon and Schuster

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