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Henry David Thoreau Quotes - Page 96

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Some are dinning in our ears that we Americans, and moderns generally, are intellectual dwarfs compared with the ancients, or eventhe Elizabethan men. But what is that to the purpose? A living dog is better than a dead

Some are dinning in our ears that we Americans, and moderns generally, are intellectual dwarfs compared with the ancients, or eventhe Elizabethan men. But what is that to the purpose? A living dog is better than a dead lion. Shall a man go and hang himself because he belongs to the race of pygmies, and not be the biggest pygmy that he can? Let every one mind his own business, and endeavor to be what he was made.

Henry David Thoreau
Dog, Men, Race
Henry David Thoreau (2016). “Walden”, p.231, Xist Publishing

The inhabitants of earth behold commonly but the dark and shadowy under side of heaven's pavement; it is only when seen at a favorable angle in the horizon, morning or evening, that some faint streaks of the rich lining of the clouds are revealed.

Henry David Thoreau
Morning, Dark, Clouds
Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.104, Penguin

I have seen some whose consciences, owing undoubtedly to former indulgence, had grown to be as irritable as spoilt children, and at length gave them no peace. They did not know when to swallow their cud, and their lives of course yielded no milk.

Henry David Thoreau
Children, Anger, Guilt
Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.96, Penguin

Good religious men, with the love of men in their hearts, and the means to pay their toll in their pockets.

Henry David Thoreau
Religious, Mean, Heart
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.101, Delphi Classics

The majority of the men of the North, and of the South and East and West, are not men of principle. If they vote, they do not sendmen to Congress on errands of humanity; but while their brothers and sisters are being scourged and hung for loving liberty,... it is the mismanagement of wood and iron and stone and gold which concerns them.

Henry David Thoreau
Brother, Men, Iron

Certainly there is not the fight recorded in Concord history, at least, if in the history of America, that will bear a moment's comparison with this, whether for the numbers engaged in it, or for the patriotism and heroism displayed.

Henry David Thoreau
Fighting, Numbers, America
Henry David Thoreau (2004). “Walden: 150th Anniversary Illustrated Edition of the American Classic”, p.225, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Yet, for my part, I was never unusually squeamish; I could sometimes eat a fried rat with a good relish, if it were necessary.

Henry David Thoreau
Rats, Sometimes, Eating
Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Citizen Thoreau: Walden, Civil Disobedience, Life Without Principle, Slavery in Massachusetts, A Plea for Captain John Brown”, p.132, Graphic Arts Books

All sensuality is one, though it takes many forms; all purity is one. It is the same whether a man eat, or drink, or cohabit, or sleep sensually. They are but one appetite, and we only need to see a person do any one of these things to know how great a sensualist he is. The impure can neither stand nor sit with purity.

Henry David Thoreau
Sleep, Men, Needs
Henry David Thoreau (2016). “Walden”, p.158, Xist Publishing

There is a difference between eating and drinking for strength and from mere gluttony.

Henry David Thoreau
Strength, Drinking, Differences
Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Excursions (Annotated Edition)”, p.97, Jazzybee Verlag

The violence of love is as much to be dreaded as that of hate.

Henry David Thoreau
Hate, Love Is, Violence
Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.114, Penguin

We are constituted a good deal like chickens, which, taken from the hen, and put in a basket of cotton in the chimney-corner, willoften peep till they die, nevertheless; but if you put in a book, or anything heavy, which will press down the cotton, and feel like the hen, they go to sleep directly.

Henry David Thoreau
Book, Taken, Sleep
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.346, e-artnow

Many a poor sore-eyed student that I have heard of would grow faster, both intellectually and physically, if, instead of sitting up so very late, he honestly slumbered a fool's allowance.

Henry David Thoreau
Sleep, Sitting, Fool
Henry David Thoreau (2015). “Walking: Top Essays”, p.16, 谷月社

In a pure society, the subject of marriage would not be so often avoided,--from shame and not from reverence, winked out of sight,and hinted at only; but treated naturally and simply,--perhaps simply avoided like the kindred mysteries. If it cannot be spoken of for shame, how can it be acted of? But, doubtless, there is far more purity, as well as more impurity, than is apparent.

Henry David Thoreau
Marriage, Sight, Mystery
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.1759, Delphi Classics

If it is the result of a pure love, there can be nothing sensual in marriage. Chastity is something positive, not negative. It isthe virtue of the married especially. All lusts or base pleasures must give place to loftier delights. They who meet as superior beings cannot perform the deeds of inferior ones.

Henry David Thoreau
Marriage, Giving, Lust

One may be drunk with love without being any nearer to finding his mate.

Henry David Thoreau
Marriage, Drunk, May
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.1138, Delphi Classics

The sea-shore is a sort of neutral ground, a most advantageous point from which to contemplate this world. It is even a trivial place. The waves forever rolling to the land are too far-travelled and untamable to be familiar. Creeping along the endless beach amid the sun-squall and the foam, it occurs to us that we, too, are the product of sea-slime.

Henry David Thoreau
Beach, Sea, Land
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.825, Delphi Classics

What is the price-current of an honest man and patriot to-day? They hesitate, and they regret, and sometimes they petition; but they do nothing in earnest and with effect. They will wait, well disposed, for others to remedy the evil, that they may no longer have it to regret. At most, they give only a cheap vote, and a feeble countenance and Godspeed, to the right, as it goes by them.

Henry David Thoreau
Regret, Men, Evil
Henry David Thoreau (2012). “Civil Disobedience and Other Essays”, p.5, Courier Corporation

I am a majority of one.

Henry David Thoreau
Majority

A man who has to go to the village to get the news hasn't heard from himself in a long time.

Henry David Thoreau
Men, Long, News

It is a very true and expressive phrase, "He looked daggers at me," for the first pattern and prototype of all daggers must have been a glance of the eye.... It is wonderful how we get about the streets without being wounded by these delicate and glancing weapons, a man can so nimbly whip out his rapier, or without being noticed carry it unsheathed. Yet it is rare that one gets seriously looked at.

Henry David Thoreau
Eye, Men, Society
Henry David Thoreau (1906). “The Writings of Henry David Thoreau: A week on the Concord and Merrimack rivers”

I find it, as ever, very unprofitable to have much to do with men. It is sowing the wind, but not reaping even the whirlwind; onlyreaping an unprofitable calm and stagnation. Our conversation is a smooth, and civil, and never-ending speculation merely.

Henry David Thoreau
Men, Wind, Society
Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.367, Penguin

I have seen more men than usual, lately; and, well as I was acquainted with one, I am surprised to find what vulgar fellows they are.

Henry David Thoreau
Men, Society, Usual
Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Familiar Letters (Annotated Edition)”, p.181, Jazzybee Verlag

I would not have every man nor every part of a man cultivated, any more than I would have every acre of earth cultivated: part will be tillage, but the greater part will be meadow and forest, not only serving an immediate use, but preparing a mould against a distant future, by the annual decay of the vegetation which it supports.

Henry David Thoreau
Men, Support, Society
Henry David Thoreau (2015). “Walking: Top Essays”, p.16, 谷月社

The finest manners in the world are awkwardness and fatuity when contrasted with a finer intelligence. They appear but as the fashions of past days,--mere courtliness, knee-buckles and small- clothes, out of date.

Henry David Thoreau
Fashion, Past, Clothes
Henry David Thoreau (1992). “The Essays of Henry David Thoreau”, p.87, Rowman & Littlefield

I would fain keep sober always; and there are infinite degrees of drunkenness.

Henry David Thoreau
Drinking, Degrees, Sober
Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Citizen Thoreau: Walden, Civil Disobedience, Life Without Principle, Slavery in Massachusetts, A Plea for Captain John Brown”, p.132, Graphic Arts Books

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