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Henry David Thoreau Quotes - Page 85

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Somehow strangely the vice of men gets well represented and protected but their virtue has none to plead its cause - nor any charter of immunities and rights.

Somehow strangely the vice of men gets well represented and protected but their virtue has none to plead its cause - nor any charter of immunities and rights.

Henry David Thoreau
Get Well, Men, Rights
Henry David Thoreau, David Gross (2007). “The Price of Freedom: Political Philosophy from Thoreau's Journals”, p.30, David M Gross

The study of geometry is a petty and idle exercise of the mind, if it is applied to no larger system than the starry one. Mathematics should be mixed not only with physics but with ethics; that is mixed mathematics.

Henry David Thoreau
Exercise, Science, Mind
Henry David Thoreau (2014). “The Illustrated "A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers"”, p.362, Princeton University Press

I saw a muskrat come out of a hole in the ice ... While I am looking at him, I am thinking what he is thinking of me. He is a different sort of man, that's all.

Henry David Thoreau
Philosophical, Animal, Men
Henry David Thoreau (1960). “H. D. Thoreau, a Writer's Journal”, p.24, Courier Corporation

I have just been through the process of killing a cistudo for the sake of science; but I cannot excuse myself for this murder, and see that such actions are inconsistent with the poetic perception, however they may serve science, and will affect the quality of my observations. I pray that I may walk more innocently and serenely through nature. No reasoning whatever reconciles me to this act. It affects my day injuriously. I have lost some self-respect. I have a murderer's experience to a degree.

Henry David Thoreau
Philosophical, Animal, Self
Henry David Thoreau (1999). “Material Faith: Thoreau on Science”, p.70, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

One cannot too soon forget his errors and misdemeanors for to dwell long upon them is to add to the offense, and repentance and sorrow can only be displaced by somewhat better, and which is as free and original as if they had not been.

Henry David Thoreau
Errors, Long, Sorrow
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.2114, Delphi Classics

Give me the old familiar world, post-office and all, with this ever new self, with this infinite expectation and faith, which does not know when it is beaten.

Henry David Thoreau
Faith, Inspiration, Self
Henry David Thoreau, Odell Shepard (1961). “The Heart of Thoreau's Journals”, p.201, Courier Corporation

The improved means to the unimproved end.

Henry David Thoreau
Mean, Environment, Ends

Still we live meanly like ants, though the fable tells us we were long ago changed into men.

Henry David Thoreau
Life, Men, Long Ago
Henry David Thoreau (2012). “Walden; Or, Life in the Woods”, p.59, Courier Corporation

The way in which men cling to old institutions after the life has departed out of them, and out of themselves, reminds me of those monkeys which cling by their tails - aye, whose tails contract about the limbs, even the dead limbs, of the forest, and they hang suspended beyond the hunter's reach long after they are dead. It is of no use to argue with such men. They have not an apprehensive intellect, but merely, as it were a prehensile tail.

Henry David Thoreau
Men, Long, Departed
Henry David Thoreau, David Gross (2007). “The Price of Freedom: Political Philosophy from Thoreau's Journals”, p.63, David M Gross

This American government - what is it but a tradition, though a recent one, endeavoring to transmit itself unimpaired to posterity, but each instant losing some of its integrity? It has not the vitality and force of a single living man; for a single man can bend it to his will.

Henry David Thoreau
Integrity, Men, Vitality
Henry David Thoreau (2015). “Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience: Top American Literary”, p.206, 谷月社

True, there are architects so called in this country, and I have heard of one at least possessed with the idea of making architectural ornaments have a core of truth, a necessity, and hence a beauty, as if it were a revelation to him. All very well perhaps from his point of view, but only a little better than the common dilettantism.

Henry David Thoreau
Beauty, Country, Views
Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Citizen Thoreau: Walden, Civil Disobedience, Life Without Principle, Slavery in Massachusetts, A Plea for Captain John Brown”, p.36, Graphic Arts Books

I fear chiefly lest my expression may not be extravagant enough, may not wander far enough beyond the narrow limit of my daily experience, so as to be adequate to the truth of which I have been convinced.

Henry David Thoreau
Truth, Fear, Expression
Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Citizen Thoreau: Walden, Civil Disobedience, Life Without Principle, Slavery in Massachusetts, A Plea for Captain John Brown”, p.190, Graphic Arts Books

The universe constantly and obediently answers to our conceptions; whether we travel fast or slow, the track is laid for us.

Henry David Thoreau
Track, Expectations, Answers
Henry David Thoreau (1882). “Walden”, p.153

As for the complex ways of living, I love them not, however much I practice them. In as many places as possible, I will get my feet down to the earth.

Henry David Thoreau
Practice, Feet, Simplicity
Henry David Thoreau, Jeffrey S. Cramer (2007). “I to Myself: An Annotated Selection from the Journal of Henry D. Thoreau”, p.204, Yale University Press

The savage lives simply through ignorance and idleness or laziness, but the philosopher lives simply through wisdom.

Henry David Thoreau
Ignorance, Simplicity, Savages
Henry David Thoreau, David Gross (2007). “The Price of Freedom: Political Philosophy from Thoreau's Journals”, p.113, David M Gross

To what end do I lead a simple life at all, pray? That I may teach others to simplify their lives? - and so all our lives be simplified merely, like an algebraic formula? Or not, rather, that I may make use of the ground I have cleared to live more worthily and profitably?

Henry David Thoreau
Simple, Simplicity, Use
Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.369, Penguin

My themes will not be far-fetched. I will tell of homely every-day phenomena and adventures.

Henry David Thoreau
Adventure, Simplicity, Scrapbooking
Henry David Thoreau, Odell Shepard (1961). “The Heart of Thoreau's Journals”, p.168, Courier Corporation

Sometimes you have to leave the world in order to learn how to live in it. Thoreau shunned society, went to the woods, and came back with a new understanding of life.

Henry David Thoreau
Order, Understanding, World

When I consider how, after sunset, the stars come out gradually in troops from behind the hills and woods, I confess that I could not have contrived a more curious and inspiring sight.

Henry David Thoreau
Stars, Sunset, Sight
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.2029, Delphi Classics

As for style of writing, if one has anything to say, it drops from him simply and directly, as a stone falls to the ground.

Henry David Thoreau
Fall, Writing, Style
1857 Letter to Daniel Ricketson, 18 Aug.

He is not a true man of science who does not bring some sympathy to his studies, and expect to learn something by behavior as well as by application. It is childish to rest in the discovery of mere coincidences, or of partial and extraneous laws. The study of geometry is a petty and idle exercise of the mind, if it is applied to no larger system than the starry one. Mathematics should be mixed not only with physics but with ethics; that is mixed mathematics. The fact which interests us most is the life of the naturalist. The purest science is still biographical.

Henry David Thoreau
Life, Learning, Exercise
Henry David Thoreau (2017). “Journeys, Adventures & Life in Harmony with Nature – 6 Book Collection (Illustrated): Including Walden, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, The Maine Woods, Cape Cod, A Yankee in Canada & Canoeing in the Wilderness - North American Highlands Series”, p.270, e-artnow

Men rush to California and Australia as if the true gold were to be found in that direction but that is to go to the very opposite extreme to where it lies. They go prospecting farther and farther away from the true lead, and are most unfortunate when they think themselves most successful.

Henry David Thoreau
Lying, Successful, Men
Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.419, Penguin

Give me a country where it is the most natural thing in the world for a government that does not understand you to let you alone.

Henry David Thoreau
Country, Government, Giving
Henry David Thoreau (2016). “A Yankee in Canada”, p.55, Graphic Arts Books

The poet will write for his peers alone. He will remember only that he saw truth and beauty from his position, and expect the time when a vision as broad shall overlook the same field as freely.

Henry David Thoreau
Writing, Vision, Peers
Henry David Thoreau (2014). “The Illustrated "A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers"”, p.341, Princeton University Press

But what is quackery? It is commonly an attempt to cure the diseases of a man by addressing his body alone. There is need of a physician who shall minister to both soul and body at once, that is, to man. Now he falls between two stools.

Henry David Thoreau
Fall, Men, Soul And Body
Henry David Thoreau (2014). “The Illustrated "A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers"”, p.257, Princeton University Press

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