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Henry David Thoreau Quotes about God

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When you knock, ask to see God — none of the servants.

When you knock, ask to see God — none of the servants.

Henry David Thoreau
God, Servant, Asks
Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Familiar Letters (Annotated Edition)”, p.131, Jazzybee Verlag

It's only by forgetting yourself that you draw near to God.

Henry David Thoreau
God, Forget You, Forget
Henry David Thoreau (1962). “The journal of Henry D. Thoreau”

If Nature is our mother, then God is our father.

Henry David Thoreau
God, Mother, Nature
Henry David Thoreau (2016). “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers”, p.265, Xist Publishing

Others - as most legislators, politicians, lawyers, ministers, and office-holders - serve the state chiefly with their heads; and, as they rarely make any moral distinctions, they are as likely to serve the devil, without intending it, as God. A very few - as heroes, patriots, martyrs, reformers in the great sense, and men - serve the state with their consciences also, and so necessarily resist it for the most part.

Henry David Thoreau
God, Hero, Men
Henry David Thoreau, Nancy L. Rosenblum (1996). “Thoreau: Political Writings”, p.3, Cambridge University Press

I respect not his labors, his farm where everything has its price, who would carry the landscape, who would carry his God, to market, if he could get anything for him; who goes to market for his god as it is; on whose farm nothing grows free, whose fields bear no crops, whose meadows no flowers, whose trees no fruits, but dollars.

Henry David Thoreau
God, Flower, Tree
Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.261, Penguin

I am not sure but I should betake myself in extremities to the liberal divinities of Greece, rather than to my country's God. Jehovah, though with us he has acquired new attributes, is more absolute and unapproachable, but hardly more divine, than Jove. He is not so much of a gentleman, not so gracious and catholic, he does not exert so intimate and genial an influence on nature, as many a god of the Greeks.

Henry David Thoreau
God, Country, Catholic
Henry David Thoreau (2017). “The Most Alive is the Wildest – Thoreau’s Complete Works on Living in Harmony with the Nature: Walden, Walking, Night and Moonlight, The Highland Light, A Winter Walk, The Maine Woods, A Walk to Wachusett, The Landlord, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, Autumnal Tints, Wild Apples…”, p.274, e-artnow

As I stand over the insect crawling amid the pine needles on the forest floor, and endeavoring to conceal itself from my sight, and ask myself why it will cherish those humble thoughts, and hide its head from me who might, perhaps, be its benefactor, and impart to its race some cheering information, I am reminded of the greater Benefactor and Intelligence that stands over me the human insect.

Henry David Thoreau
God, Cheer, Humility
Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Citizen Thoreau: Walden, Civil Disobedience, Life Without Principle, Slavery in Massachusetts, A Plea for Captain John Brown”, p.194, Graphic Arts Books

It seems to me that the god that is commonly worshipped in civilized countries is not at all divine, though he bears a divine name, but is the overwhelming authority and respectability of mankind combined. Men reverence one another, not yet God.

Henry David Thoreau
God, Country, Men
1849 A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers,'Sunday'.

The unconsciousness of man is the consciousness of God.

Henry David Thoreau
God, Men, Consciousness
Henry David Thoreau (1873). “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers”, p.348

What are men celebrating? They are all on a committee of arrangements, and hourly expect a speech from somebody. God is only the president of the day, and Webster is his orator.

Henry David Thoreau
God, Integrity, Men
Henry David Thoreau (2015). “Walden”, p.276, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

The gods cannot misunderstand, man cannot explain.

Henry David Thoreau
God, Communication, Men
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.1644, Delphi Classics

I make my own time. I make my own terms. I cannot see how God or Nature can ever get the start of me.

Henry David Thoreau
God, Nature, Freedom
Henry David Thoreau (1960). “H. D. Thoreau, a Writer's Journal”, p.8, Courier Corporation

It is not when I am going to meet him, but when I am just turning away and leaving him alone, that I discover what God is. I say, God. I am not sure that that is the name. You will know what I mean.

Henry David Thoreau
God, Mean, Names
Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.361, Penguin

It is remarkable that almost all speakers and writers feel it to be incumbent on them, sooner or later, to prove or acknowledge the personality of God. Some Earl of Bridgewater, thinking it better late than never, has provided for it in his will. It is a sad mistake.

Henry David Thoreau
God, Mistake, Thinking
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.71, Delphi Classics

Bribed with a little sunlight and a few prismatic tints, we bless our Maker, and stave off his wrath with hymns.

Henry David Thoreau
God, Wrath, Hymns
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.65, Delphi Classics

The man who takes the liberty to live is superior to all the laws, by virtue of his relation to the lawmaker.

Henry David Thoreau
God, Freedom, Men
Henry David Thoreau (2016). “Essays of Henry David Thoreau - Walking”, p.37, Editora Dracaena

I should fear the infinite power and inflexible justice of the almighty mortal hardly as yet apotheosized, so wholly masculine, with no sister Juno, no Apollo, no Venus, nor Minerva, to intercede for me, thumoi phileousa te, kedomene te.

Henry David Thoreau
Sister, God, Women

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