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Henry David Thoreau Quotes - Page 98

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All men are children, and of one family. The same tale sends them all to bed, and wakes them in the morning.

All men are children, and of one family. The same tale sends them all to bed, and wakes them in the morning.

Henry David Thoreau
Family, Faith, Morning
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “The Essential Thoreau”, p.482, Simon and Schuster

We are not what we are, nor do we treat or esteem each other for such, but for what we are capable of being.

Henry David Thoreau
Literature, Treats, Esteem
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.1631, Delphi Classics

How could youths better learn to live than by at once trying the experiment of living?

Henry David Thoreau
Life, Educational, Learning
Henry David Thoreau (2015). “Walden”, p.41, Booklassic

Instead of noblemen, let us have noble villages of men.

Henry David Thoreau
Men, Noble, Literature
Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Citizen Thoreau: Walden, Civil Disobedience, Life Without Principle, Slavery in Massachusetts, A Plea for Captain John Brown”, p.72, Graphic Arts Books

To speak practically and as a citizen, unlike those who call themselves no-government men, I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government. Let every man make known what kind of government would command his respect, and that will be one step toward obtaining it.

Henry David Thoreau
Men, Criticism, Steps
Henry David Thoreau (1942). “Civil Disobedience”, p.3, Hayes Barton Press

No definition of poetry is adequate unless it be poetry itself. The most accurate analysis by the rarest wisdom is yet insufficient, and the poet will instantly prove it false by setting aside its requisitions. It is indeed all that we do not know.

Henry David Thoreau
Criticism, Analysis, Adequate
Henry David Thoreau (1962). “The journal of Henry D. Thoreau”

Let us spend one day as deliberately as Nature, and not be thrown off track by every nutshell and mosquito's wing that falls on the rails. Let us rise early and fast, or break fast, gently and without perturbation; let company come and let company go, let the bells ring and the children cry,-determine to make a day of it.

Henry David Thoreau
Life, Children, Fall
Henry David Thoreau (1882). “Walden”, p.153

I got up early and bathed in the pond; that was a religious exercise, and one of the best things which I did. They say that characters were engraven on the bathing tub of King Tching-thang to this effect: "Renew thyself completely each day; do it again, and again, and forever again."

Henry David Thoreau
Life, Religious, Kings
Henry David Thoreau (1882). “Walden”, p.140

Truth is always paradoxical.

Henry David Thoreau
Truth, Truth Is, Paradoxical
Henry David Thoreau (2011). “The Journal of Henry David Thoreau, 1837-1861”, p.10, New York Review of Books

I lived in Judea eighteen hundred years ago, but I never knew that there was such a one as Christ among my contemporaries.

Henry David Thoreau
Years, Christ, Reincarnation
Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson (1865). “Letters to Various Persons”, p.59

But government in which the majority rule in all cases can not be based on justice, even as far as men understand it.

Henry David Thoreau
Men, Majority Rule, Justice
Henry David Thoreau, Nancy L. Rosenblum (1996). “Thoreau: Political Writings”, p.2, Cambridge University Press

Trade and commerce, if they were not made of Indian rubber, would never manage to bounce over the obstacles which legislators are continually putting in their way.

Henry David Thoreau
Philosophy, Government, Political
Henry David Thoreau (2000). “Walden and Other Writings: (A Modern Library E-Book)”, p.679, Modern Library

Most of the luxuries and many of the so-called comforts of life are not only not indispensable but positive hindrances to our progress. Our life is frittered away by detail. I say let your affairs be as two or three, not a hundred or a thousand. And keep your accounts on your thumb nail.

Henry David Thoreau
Two, Luxury, Progress

Removing the weeds, putting fresh soil about the bean stems, and encouraging this weed which I had sown, making the yellow soil express its summer thought in bean leaves and blossoms rather than in wormwood and piper and millet grass, making the earth say beans instead of grass, - this was my daily work.

Henry David Thoreau
Summer, Weed, Work
Henry David Thoreau (2015). “Walden and Civil Disobedience”, p.113, Xist Publishing

A man has not seen a thing who has not felt it.

Henry David Thoreau
Men, Felt, Seeing
Henry David Thoreau, Odell Shepard (1961). “The Heart of Thoreau's Journals”, p.214, Courier Corporation

If we were left solely to the wordy wit of legislators in Congress for our guidance, uncorrected by the seasonal experience and the effectual complaints of the people, America would not long retain her rank among the nations.

Henry David Thoreau
America, Long, People

The character inherent in the American people has done all that has been accomplished; and it would have done somewhat more, if the government had not sometimes got in its way.

Henry David Thoreau
Time, Character, Government
Henry David Thoreau (1942). “Civil Disobedience”, p.3, Hayes Barton Press

How important is a constant intercourse with nature and the contemplation of natural phenomena to the preservation of moral and intellectual health!

Henry David Thoreau
Nature, Intellectual, Important
Henry David Thoreau, Jeffrey S. Cramer (2007). “I to Myself: An Annotated Selection from the Journal of Henry D. Thoreau”, p.66, Yale University Press

It is not enough to be a hardworking person. Equally important is the job you are working at.

Henry David Thoreau
Jobs, Important, Enough

Before the end of December, generally, they experience their first thawing. Those which a month ago were sour, crabbed, and quite unpalatable to the civilized taste, such at least as were frozen while sound, let a warmer sun come to thaw them, for they are extremely sensitive to its rays, are found to be filled with a rich, sweet cider, better than any bottled cider that I know of, and with which I am better acquainted than with wine. All apples are good in this state, and your jaws are the cider-press.

Henry David Thoreau
Sweet, Wine, Apples
Henry David Thoreau (1992). “The Essays of Henry David Thoreau”, p.219, Rowman & Littlefield

Even the utmost good-will and harmony and practical kindness are not sufficient for Friendship, for Friends do not live in harmony merely, as some say, but in melody. We do not wish for Friends to feed and clothe our bodies-neighbors are kind enough for that-but to do the like office to our spirits.

Henry David Thoreau
Best Friend, Kindness, Office
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.199, e-artnow

We perceive and are affected by changes too subtle to be described.

Henry David Thoreau
Inspirational, Change, Influence
Henry David Thoreau (2011). “The Journal of Henry David Thoreau, 1837-1861”, p.489, New York Review of Books

It is easier to sail many thousand miles through cold and storm and cannibals, ina government ship, with five hundred men and boys to assist one, than it is to explore the private sea, the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean of one's being alone.

Henry David Thoreau
Ocean, Men, Boys
Henry David Thoreau (2009). “Walden”, p.208, Cosimo, Inc.

The stars are the jewels of the night, and perchance surpass anything which day has to show. A companion with whom I was sailing one very windy but bright moonlight night, when the stars were few and faint, thought that a man could get along with them,-though he was considerably reduced in his circumstances,-that they were a kind of bread and cheese that never failed.

Henry David Thoreau
Stars, Night, Men
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.1261, Delphi Classics

If we knew all the laws of Nature, we should need only fact, or the description of one actual phenomenon, to infer all the particular results at that point.

Henry David Thoreau
Art, Nature, Law
1854 Walden, or Life in the Woods,'The Pond inWinter'.

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