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Henry David Thoreau Quotes about Society

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Politics is the gizzard of society, full of gut and gravel.

Politics is the gizzard of society, full of gut and gravel.

Henry David Thoreau
Society, Politics, Gravel

As for the dispute about solitude and society, any comparison is impertinent. It is an idling down on the plane at the base of a mountain, instead of climbing steadily to its top.

Henry David Thoreau
Climbing, Solitude, Society
Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Familiar Letters (Annotated Edition)”, p.218, Jazzybee Verlag

In my afternoon walk I would fain forget all my morning occupations and my obligations to society.

Henry David Thoreau
Good Morning, Society, Afternoon
Henry David Thoreau (2015). “Walking: Top Essays”, p.2, 谷月社

If I should sell both my forenoons and afternoons to society, as most appear to do, I am sure, that, for me, there would be nothing left worth living for.

Henry David Thoreau
Life, Society, Would Be
"Life Without Principle". The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 12, Issue 71, (pp. 484-495), 1863.

In society you will not find health, but in nature. Unless our feet at least stood in the midst of nature, all our faces would bepale and livid. Society is always diseased, and the best is the most so.

Henry David Thoreau
Nature, Feet, Society
Henry David Thoreau (1868). “Excursions”, p.39

I have no designs on society, or nature, or God. I am simply what I am, or I begin to be that. I live in the present. I only remember the past, and anticipate the future. I love to live.

Henry David Thoreau
Past, Design, Society
Henry David Thoreau, Barry Andrews (2005). “True Harvest: Readings from Henry David Thoreau for Every Day of the Year”, p.83, Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations

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

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