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Henry David Thoreau Quotes about Philosophy

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In the morning I bathe my intellect in the stupendous and cosmogonal philosophy of the Bhagavad-Gita, in comparison with which our modern world and its literature seems puny and trivial.

In the morning I bathe my intellect in the stupendous and cosmogonal philosophy of the Bhagavad-Gita, in comparison with which our modern world and its literature seems puny and trivial.

Henry David Thoreau
Morning, Philosophy, Gita
Henry David Thoreau (2017). “Walden: Life in the Woods”, p.184, Gibbs Smith

To be a philosopher... is to solve some of the problems of life, not only theoretically, but practically.

Henry David Thoreau
Philosophy, Philosopher, Problem
Henry David Thoreau (2009). “Walden”, p.9, Cosimo, Inc.

The true man of science will know nature better by his finer organization; he will smell, taste, see, hear, feel, better than other men. His will be a deeper and finer experience. We do not learn by inference and deduction and the application of mathematics to philosophy, but by direct intercourse and sympathy. It is with science as with ethics,--we cannot know truth by contrivance and method; the Baconian is as false as any other, and with all the helps of machinery and the arts, the most scientific will still be the healthiest and friendliest man, and possess a more perfect Indian wisdom.

Henry David Thoreau
Art, Philosophy, Feel Better
Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Excursions (Annotated Edition)”, p.27, Jazzybee Verlag

As for the tenets of the Brahmans, we are not so much concerned to know what doctrines they held, as that they were held by any. We can tolerate all philosophies.... It is the attitude of these men, more than any communication which they make, that attracts us.

Henry David Thoreau
Truth, Attitude, Philosophy
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “The Essential Thoreau”, p.547, Simon and Schuster

No method nor discipline can supersede the necessity of being forever on the alert. What is a course of history, or philosophy, or poetry, or the most admirable routine of life, compared with the discipline of looking always at what is to be seen? Will you be a reader, a student merely, or a seer?

Henry David Thoreau
Philosophy, Discipline, Forever
Henry David Thoreau (2017). “HENRY DAVID THOREAU - Ultimate Collection: 6 Books, 26 Essays & 60+ Poems, Including Translations. Biographies & Letters (Illustrated): Walden, The Maine Woods, Cape Cod, A Yankee in Canada, Canoeing in the Wilderness, Civil Disobedience, Slavery in Massachusetts, Life Without Principle, Excursions, Poems of Nature, Familiar Letters…”, p.53, e-artnow

Let us settle ourselves, and work and wedge our feet downwards through the mud and slush of opinion and tradition, and pride and prejudice, appearance and delusion, through the alluvium which covers the globe, through poetry and philosophy and religion, through church and state, through Paris and London, through New York and Boston and Concord, till we come to a hard bottom that rocks in place which we can call reality and say, "This is and no mistake.

Henry David Thoreau
New York, Philosophy, Mistake

I think that there is nothing, not even crime, more opposed to poetry, to philosophy, ay, to life itself than this incessant business.

Henry David Thoreau
Money, Business, Philosophy
Henry David Thoreau, David Gross (2007). “The Price of Freedom: Political Philosophy from Thoreau's Journals”, p.98, David M Gross

There are nowadays professors of philosophy, but not philosophers

Henry David Thoreau
Philosophy, Philosopher, Professors
'Walden' (1854) 'Economy'

Simplify, simplify, simplify.

Henry David Thoreau
Life, Wise, Philosophy
Henry David Thoreau (1937). “The selected works of Thoreau”, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH)

What would we not give for some great poem to read now, which would be in harmony with the scenery,--for if men read aright, methinks they would never read anything but poems. No history nor philosophy can supply their place.

Henry David Thoreau
Philosophy, Reading, Men
Henry David Thoreau (2016). “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers”, p.64, Xist Publishing

My desire for knowledge is intermittent; but my desire to bathe my head in atmospheres unknown to my feet is perennial and constant. The highest that we can attain to is not Knowledge, but Sympathy with Intelligence. I do not know that this higher knowledge amounts to anything more definite than a novel and grand surprise on a sudden revelation of the insufficiency of all that we called Knowledge before,—a discovery that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in our philosophy.

Henry David Thoreau
Philosophy, Feet, Discovery
Henry David Thoreau (2015). “Walking”, p.26, Sheba Blake Publishing

Poetry implies the whole truth. Philosophy expresses a particle of it.

Henry David Thoreau
Truth, Philosophy, Poetry
"The Journal of Henry David Thoreau, 1837-1861".

Between whom there is hearty truth there is love.

Henry David Thoreau
Love, Inspirational, Philosophy
Henry David Thoreau (2006). “Thoreau and the Art of Life: Precepts and Principles”, p.10, Heron Dance Press

There is always some accident in the best things, whether thoughts or expressions or deeds. The memorable thought, the happy expression, the admirable deed are only partly ours.

Henry David Thoreau
Art, Philosophy, Memorable
Henry David Thoreau, Odell Shepard (1961). “The Heart of Thoreau's Journals”, p.207, Courier Corporation

Say, Not so, and you will out circle the philosophers.

Henry David Thoreau
Philosophy, Circles, Philosopher

The poet uses the results of science and philosophy, and generalizes their widest deductions.

Henry David Thoreau
Philosophy, Philosophical, Poetry
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.271, Delphi Classics

All the moral laws are readily translated into natural philosophy, for often we have only to restore the primitive meaning of thewords by which they are expressed, or to attend to their literal instead of their metaphorical sense. They are already supernatural philosophy.

Henry David Thoreau
Philosophy, Philosophical, Law
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.271, Delphi Classics

A farmer, a hunter, a soldier, a reporter, even a philosopher, may be daunted; but nothing can deter a poet, for he is actuated by pure love. Who can predict his comings and goings? His business calls him out at all hours, even when doctors sleep.

Henry David Thoreau
Love, Business, Philosophy
Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.300, Penguin

The highest condition of art is artlessness.

Henry David Thoreau
Art, Philosophy, History
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Quotable Thoreau: An A to Z Glossary of Inspiring Quotations from Henry David Thoreau”, p.17, BookBaby

It is not easy to make our lives respectable by any course of activity. We must repeatedly withdraw into our shells of thought, like the tortoise, somewhat helplessly; yet there is more than philosophy in that.

Henry David Thoreau
Philosophy, Philosophical, Thinking
Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Familiar Letters (Annotated Edition)”, p.148, Jazzybee Verlag

Especially the transcendental philosophy needs the leaven of humor to render it light and digestible.

Henry David Thoreau
Funny, Philosophy, Humor
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.1078, Delphi Classics

The Oriental philosophy approaches easily loftier themes than the modern aspires to; and no wonder if it sometimes prattle about them. It only assigns their due rank respectively to Action and Contemplation, or rather does full justice to the latter. Western philosophers have not conceived of the significance of Contemplation in their sense.

Henry David Thoreau
Philosophy, Philosophical, Justice
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.113, Delphi Classics

It cannot but affect our philosophy favorably to be reminded of these shoals of migratory fishes, of salmon, shad, alewives, marsh-bankers, and others, which penetrate up the innumerable rivers of our coast in the spring, even to the interior lakes, their scales gleaming in the sun; and again, of the fry which in still greater numbers wend their way downward to the sea.

Henry David Thoreau
Philosophy, Spring, Philosophical
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.273, e-artnow

Any moral philosophy is exceedingly rare. This of Menu addresses our privacy more than most. It is a more private and familiar, and at the same time, a more public and universal word, than is spoken in parlor or pulpit nowadays.

Henry David Thoreau
Philosophy, Philosophical, Addresses
Henry David Thoreau (2016). “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers”, p.105, Xist Publishing

Slow are the beginnings of philosophy.

Henry David Thoreau
Philosophy, Philosophical
Henry David Thoreau (2011). “The Natural History Essays”, p.29, Gibbs Smith

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