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Henry David Thoreau Quotes about Heart

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The pleasures of the intellect are permanent, the pleasures of the heart are transitory.

The pleasures of the intellect are permanent, the pleasures of the heart are transitory.

Henry David Thoreau
Heart, Pleasure, Intellect
Henry David Thoreau, Jeffrey S. Cramer (2007). “I to Myself: An Annotated Selection from the Journal of Henry D. Thoreau”, p.126, Yale University Press

Trees indeed have hearts.

Henry David Thoreau
Heart, Tree
Henry David Thoreau (1993). “A Year in Thoreau's Journal: 1851”, p.301, Penguin

Faint heart never won true friend. O my friend, may it come to pass, once, that when you are my friend I may be yours.

Henry David Thoreau
True Friend, Heart, May
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.203, Delphi Classics

It is not worth the while to let our imperfections disturb us always. The conscience really does not, and ought not to monopolizethe whole of our lives, any more than the heart or the head. It is as liable to disease as any other part.

Henry David Thoreau
Heart, Imperfection, Doe
Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.96, Penguin

If you stand right fronting and face to face to a fact, you will see the sun glimmer on both its surfaces, as if it were a cimeter, and feel its sweet edge dividing you through the heart and marrow, and so you will happily conclude your mortal career. Be it life or death, we crave only reality. If we are really dying, let us hear the rattle in our throats and feel cold in the extremities; if we are alive, let us go about our business.

Henry David Thoreau
Life, Sweet, Heart
Henry David Thoreau (2016). “Walden”, p.70, Xist Publishing

I have tasted but little bread in my life. It has been mere grub and provender for the most part. Of bread that nourished the brain and the heart, scarcely any. There is absolutely none on the tables even of the rich.

Henry David Thoreau
Heart, Brain, Tables
Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Familiar Letters (Annotated Edition)”, p.131, Jazzybee Verlag

The heart is forever inexperienced.

Henry David Thoreau
Heart, Forever, Inexperience
Henry David Thoreau (2006). “Thoreau and the Art of Life: Precepts and Principles”, p.10, Heron Dance Press

What other words, we may almost ask, are memorable and worthy to be repeated than those which love has inspired? It is wonderful that they were ever uttered. They are few and rare indeed, but, like a strain of music, they are incessantly repeated and modulated by the memory. All other words crumble off with the stucco which overlies the heart. We should not dare to repeat these now aloud. We are not competent to hear them at all times.

Henry David Thoreau
Memories, Memorable, Heart
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “The Essential Thoreau”, p.637, Simon and Schuster

In winter we lead a more inward life. Our hearts are warm and cheery, like cottages under drifts.

Henry David Thoreau
Heart, Winter, Inward
Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.54, Penguin

It is usually the imagination that is wounded first, rather than the heart; it being much more sensitive.

Henry David Thoreau
Anger, Heart, Imagination
Henry David Thoreau (2006). “Thoreau and the Art of Life: Precepts and Principles”, p.9, Heron Dance Press

It would be worthy of the age to print together the collected Scriptures or Sacred Writings of the several nations, the Chinese, the Hindoos, the Persians, the Hebrews, and others, as the Scripture of mankind. The New Testament is still, perhaps, too much on the lips and in the hearts of men to be called a Scripture in this sense. Such a juxtaposition and comparison might help to liberalize the faith of men.... This would be the Bible, or Book of Books, which let the missionaries carry to the uttermost parts of the earth.

Henry David Thoreau
Book, Writing, Heart
Henry David Thoreau (2016). “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers”, p.101, Xist Publishing

In love and friendship the imagination is as much exercised as the heart; and if either is outraged the other will be estranged. It is commonly the imagination which is wounded first, rather than the heart,--it is so much the more sensitive.

Henry David Thoreau
Friendship, Heart, Imagination
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.1138, Delphi Classics

Critical acumen is exerted in vain to uncover the past; the past cannot be presented; we cannot know what we are not. But one veilhangs over past, present, and future, and it is the province of the historian to find out, not what was, but what is. Where a battle has been fought, you will find nothing but the bones of men and beasts; where a battle is being fought, there are hearts beating.

Henry David Thoreau
Heart, Past, Men
Henry David Thoreau (2016). “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers”, p.109, Xist Publishing

In winter we lead a more inward life. Our hearts are warm and cheery, like cottages under drifts, whose windows and doors are halfconcealed, but from whose chimneys the smoke cheerfully ascends.... We enjoy now, not an Oriental, but a Boreal leisure, around warm stoves and fireplaces, and watch the shadow of motes in the sunbeams.

Henry David Thoreau
Heart, Winter, Doors

A healthy man, indeed, is the complement of the seasons, and in winter, summer is in his heart.

Henry David Thoreau
Summer, Heart, Health
Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.47, Penguin

We should go forth on the shortest walk, perchance in the spirit of undying adventure, never to return - sending back our embalmed hearts only as relics to our desolate kingdoms.

Henry David Thoreau
Heart, Adventure, Journey
Henry David Thoreau (1863). “Excursions”, p.162

What is called eloquence in the forum is commonly found to be rhetoric in the study. The orator yields to the inspiration of a transient occasion, and speaks to the mob before him, to those who can hear him; but the writer, whose more equable life is his occasion, and who would be distracted by the event and the crowd which inspire the orator, speaks to the intellect and heart of mankind, to all in any age who can understand him.

Henry David Thoreau
Inspiration, Heart, Yield
Henry David Thoreau (2015). “Walden”, p.88, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Comparatively, we can excuse any offense against the heart, but not against the imagination. The imagination knows--nothing escapes its glance from out its eyry--and it controls the breast.

Henry David Thoreau
Heart, Imagination, Excuse
Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Familiar Letters (Annotated Edition)”, p.159, Jazzybee Verlag

Continued traveling is far from productive. It begins with wearing away the soles of the shoes, and making the feet sore, and erelong it will wear a man clean up, after making his heart sore into the bargain. I have observed that the afterlife of those who have traveled much is very pathetic.

Henry David Thoreau
Travel, Heart, Men
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.455, e-artnow

A common and natural result of an undue respect for law is, that you may see a file of soldiers, colonel, captain, corporal, privates, powder-monkeys, and all, marching in admirable order over hill and dale to the wars, against their wills, ay, against their common sense and consciences, which makes it very steep marching indeed, and produces a palpitation of the heart.

Henry David Thoreau
War, Heart, Order
Henry David Thoreau (2002). “The Essays of Henry D. Thoreau: Selected and Edited by Lewis Hyde”, p.202, North Point Press

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

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