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Henry David Thoreau

229 quotes

“I am a parcel of vain strivings tied By a chance bond together, Dangling this way and that, their links Were made so loose and wide, Methinks, For milder weather.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) first seen 1841 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Sic Vita", st. 1. The Dial (July 1841) p. 81
“But now I see I was not plucked for naught, And after in life's vase Of glass set while I might survive, But by a kind hand brought Alive To a strange place.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) first seen 1841 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Sic Vita", st. 6. The Dial (July 1841) p. 82
“Let us not underrate the value of a fact; it will one day flower in a truth.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) first seen 1842 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Natural History of Massachusetts". The Dial (July 1842) p. 39
“Great God, I ask thee for no meaner pelf Than that I may not disappoint myself, That in my action I may soar as high As I can now discern with this clear eye.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) first seen 1842 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Prayer", st. 1. The Dial (July 1842) p. 79
“The life that I aspire to live No man proposeth me— No trade upon the street Wears its emblazonry.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) first seen 1842 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Black Knight", l. 11. The Dial (October 1842) p. 180
“My books I'd fain cast off, I cannot read, 'Twixt every page my thoughts go stray at large Down in the meadow, where is richer feed, And will not mind to hit their proper targe.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) first seen 1842 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Summer Rain", st. 1. The Dial (October 1842) p. 224
“Here while I lie beneath this walnut bough, What care I for the Greeks or for Troy town, If juster battles are enacted now Between the ants upon this hummock's crown?”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) first seen 1842 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Summer Rain", st. 3. The Dial (October 1842) p. 224
“When will the world learn that a million men are of no importance compared with one man?”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) first seen 1843 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Ralph Waldo Emerson (8 June 1843)
“Talk of mysteries! — Think of our life in nature, — daily to be shown matter, to come in contact with it, — rocks, trees, wind on our cheeks! The solid earth! the actual world! the common sense! Contact! Contact! Who are we? where are we?”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) first seen 1848 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Maine Woods (1848) Ktaadn
“The law will never make men free; it is men who have got to make the law free.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) first seen 1854 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Slavery in Massachusetts" (1854)
“The fate of the country does not depend on how you vote at the polls — the worst man is as strong as the best at that game; it does not depend on what kind of paper you drop into the ballot-box once a year, but on what kind of man you drop from your chamber into the street every morning.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) first seen 1854 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Slavery in Massachusetts" (1854)
“I am grateful for what I am & have. My thanksgiving is perpetual. It is surprising how contented one can be with nothing definite — only a sense of existence. Well, anything for variety. I am ready to try this for the next 1000 years, & exhaust it. How sweet to think of! My extremities well charred, and my intellectual part too, so that there is no danger of worm or rot for a long while. My breath is sweet to me. O how I laugh when I think of my vague indefinite riches. No run on my bank can drain it — for my wealth is not possession but enjoyment.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) first seen 1856 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Harrison Gray Otis Blake (6–7 December 1856), as published in The Correspondence of Henry David Thoreau (1958), p. 444; often quoted since 1865 in the form "I am ready to try this for the next ten thousand yea…
“It is not enough to be industrious; so are the ants. What are you industrious about?”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) first seen 1857 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Harrison Blake (November 16, 1857)
“You ask particularly after my health. I suppose that I have not many months to live; but, of course, I know nothing about it. I may add that I am enjoying existence as much as ever, and regret nothing.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) first seen 1862 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Last letter, to Myron Benton (March 31, 1862)
“A gun gives you the body, not the bird.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) said by 1862 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted by Ralph Waldo Emerson, in C. J. Woodbury (ed.) Talks with Ralph Waldo Emerson (1890)
“Free in this world as the birds in the air, disengaged from every kind of chains, those who have practiced the Yoga gather in Brahmin the certain fruit of their works. Depend upon it; rude and careless as I am, I would fain practice the yoga faithfully. This Yogi, absorbed in contemplation, contributes in his degree to creation; he breathes a divine perfume, he heard wonderful things. Divine forms traverse him without tearing him and he goes, he acts as animating original matter. To some extent, and at rare intervals, even I am a Yogi.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) first seen 1849 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to H. G. O. Blake (November 20, 1849)
“Truth, Goodness, Beauty — those celestial thrins, Continually are born; e'en now the Universe, With thousand throats, and eke with greener smiles, Its joy confesses at their recent birth.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) first seen 1838 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: June 14, 1838
“Sphere Music — Some sounds seem to reverberate along the plain, and then settle to earth again like dust; such are Noise, Discord, Jargon. But such only as spring heavenward, and I may catch from steeples and hilltops in their upward course, which are the more refined parts of the former, are the true sphere music — pure, unmixed music — in which no wail mingles.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) first seen 1838 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: August 5, 1838
“That virtue we appreciate is as much ours as another's. We see so much only as we possess.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) first seen 1839 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: June 22, 1839
“On the death of a friend, we should consider that the fates through confidence have devolved on us the task of a double living, that we have henceforth to fulfill the promise of our friend's life also, in our own, to the world.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) first seen 1840 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: February 28, 1840
“An early morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) first seen 1840 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: April 20, 1840
“Have no mean hours, but be grateful for every hour, and accept what it brings. The reality will make any sincere record respectable. No day will have been wholly misspent, if one sincere, thoughtful page has been written. Let the daily tide leave some deposit on these pages, as it leaves sand and shells on the shore. So much increase of terra firma. this may be a calendar of the ebbs and flows of the soul; and on these sheets as a beach, the waves may cast up pearls and seaweed.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) first seen 1840 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: July 6, 1840
“Who looks in the sun will see no light else; but also he will see no shadow. Our life revolves unceasingly, but the centre is ever the same, and the wise will regard only the seasons of the soul.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) first seen 1841 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: March 10, 1841
“We are as much as we see. Faith is sight and knowledge. The hands only serve the eyes.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) first seen 1841 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: April 9, 1841
“The Indian...stands free and unconstrained in Nature, is her inhabitant and not her guest, and wears her easily and gracefully. But the civilized man has the habits of the house. His house is a prison.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) first seen 1841 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: April 26, 1841
“It is a great art to saunter.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) first seen 1841 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: April 26, 1841
“A slight sound at evening lifts me up by the ears, and makes life seem inexpressibly serene and grand. It may be Uranus, or it may be in the shutter.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) first seen 1841 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: July 10-12, 1841
“I cannot read a sentence in the book of the Hindoos without being elevated as upon the table-land of the Ghauts. It has such a rhythm as the winds of the desert, such a tide as the Ganges, and seems as superior to criticism as the Himmaleh Mounts. Even at this late hour, unworn by time with a native and inherent dignity it wears the English dress as indifferently as the Sanscrit.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) first seen 1841 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: August 6, 1841
“We are apt to imagine that this hubbub of Philosophy, Literature, and Religion, which is heard in pulpits, lyceums, and parlors, vibrates through the universe, and is as catholic a sound as the creaking of the earth's axle. But if a man sleeps soundly, he will forget it all between sunset and dawn.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) first seen 1842 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: January 6, 1842
“One cannot too soon forget his errors and misdemeanors. To dwell long upon them is to add to the offense. Repentance and sorrow can only be displaced by something better, which is as free and original as if they had not been.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) first seen 1842 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: January 9, 1842
“And the cost of a thing it will be remembered as the amount of life it requires to be exchanged for it.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) first seen 1845 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: After December 6, 1845
“For many years I was self-appointed inspector of snowstorms and rainstorms, and did my duty faithfully, though I never received one cent for it.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) first seen 1846 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: After February 22, 1846
“Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) first seen 1847 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1847
“Men go to a fire for entertainment. When I see how eagerly men will run to a fire, whether in warm or in cold weather, by day or by night, dragging an engine at their heels, I'm astonished to perceive how good a purpose the level of excitement is made to serve.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) first seen 1850 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: June, 1850
“What extracts from the Vedas I have read fall on me like the light of a higher and purer luminary, which describes a loftier course through purer stratum. It rises on me like the full moon after the stars have come out, wading through some far stratum in the sky.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) first seen 1850 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1850
“And now, at half-past ten o'clock, I hear the cockerels crow in Hubbard's barns, and morning is already anticipated. It is the feathered, wakeful thought in us that anticipates the following day.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) first seen 1851 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: July 11, 1851
“How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) first seen 1851 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: August 19, 1851
“Nothing is so much to be feared as fear. Atheism may comparatively be popular with God himself.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) first seen 1851 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: September 7, 1851
“The bluebird carries the sky on his back.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) first seen 1852 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: April 3, 1852
“The perception of beauty is a moral test.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) first seen 1852 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: June 21, 1852
“The youth gets together his materials to build a bridge to the moon, or, perchance, a palace or temple on the earth, and, at length, the middle-aged man concludes to build a woodshed with them.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) first seen 1852 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: July 14, 1852
“Every poet has trembled on the verge of science.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) first seen 1852 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: July 18, 1852
“Fire is the most tolerable third party.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) first seen 1853 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: January 2, 1853
“Some circumstantial evidence is very strong, as when you find a trout in the milk.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) first seen 1854 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: November 11, 1854
“Nature is full of genius, full of the divinity; so that not a snowflake escapes its fashioning hand.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) first seen 1856 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: January 5, 1856
“The same law that shapes the earth-star shapes the snow-star. As surely as the petals of a flower are fixed, each of these countless snow-stars comes whirling to earth...these glorious spangles, the sweeping of heaven's floor.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) first seen 1856 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: January 5, 1856
“That man is the richest whose pleasures are the cheapest.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) first seen 1856 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: March 11, 1856
“This bird sees the white man come and the Indian withdraw, but it withdraws not. Its untamed voice is still heard above the tinkling of the forge... It remains to remind us of aboriginal nature.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) first seen 1856 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: March 23, 1856; of the crow
“It is in vain to dream of a wildness distant from ourselves.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) first seen 1856 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: August 30, 1856
“If you are describing any occurrence... make two or more distinct reports at different times... We discriminate at first only a few features, and we need to reconsider our experience from many points of view and in various moods in order to perceive the whole.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) first seen 1857 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: March 24, 1857