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henry david thoreau quotes

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Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a
just man is also in prison.

-- Henry David Thoreau


I do not know where to find in any literature, whether ancient or modern,
any adequate account of that nature with which I am acquainted. Mythology
comes nearest to it of any.
-- Henry David Thoreau


Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.

-- Henry David Thoreau


The law will never make men free; it is men who have got to make the
law free.

-- Henry David Thoreau


The man who goes alone can start today; but he who travels with another must
wait till that other is ready.
Henry David Thoreau, Walden(1854),I,Economy


What does education often do? It makes a straight cut ditch of a
free meandering brook.
-- Henry David Thoreau


Any fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it.
Henry David Thoreau


The works of the great poets have never yet been read by mankind, for only
great poets can read them.
Henry David Thoreau, Walden(1854), III, Reading


What does education often do? It makes a straight cut ditch of a
free meandering brook.
-- Henry David Thoreau


That government is best which governs least.
-- Henry David Thoreau, "Civil Disobedience"


It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a
statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more
glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through
which we look, which morally we can do. To affect the quality of the
day, that is the highest of arts.

-- Henry David Thoreau, "Where I Live"


It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a
statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious
to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look,
which morally we can do. To affect the quality of the day, that is the
highest of arts. Every man is tasked to make his life, even in its details,
worthy of the contemplation of his most elevated and critical hour.
-- Henry David Thoreau, "Where I Live"


The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.
Henry David Thoreau, Walden(1854),I,Economy


It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a
statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious
to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look,
which morally we can do. To affect the quality of the day, that is the
highest of arts. Every man is tasked to make his life, even in its details,
worthy of the contemplation of his most elevated and critical hour.
-- Henry David Thoreau, "Where I Live"


Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather
a new wearer of clothes.
-- Henry David Thoreau


In wildness is the preservation of the world.
Henry David Thoreau, Walking(1862)


Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a
just man is also a prison.
-- Henry David Thoreau


Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a
just man is also a prison.

-- Henry David Thoreau


Goodness is the only investment that never fails.

-- Henry David Thoreau


Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a
just man is also a prison.
-- Henry David Thoreau


We should distrust any enterprise that requires new clothes.

-- Henry David Thoreau


Lo! Men have become the tool of their tools.
-- Henry David Thoreau


The law will never make men free; it is men who have got to make the law free.
-- Henry David Thoreau


If a thousand men were not to pay their tax-bills this year, that would
... [be] the definition of a peaceable revolution, if any such is possible.
-- Henry David Thoreau


Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in.
-- Henry David Thoreau


Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes.
Henry David Thoreau, Walden(1854),I,Economy


To be awake is to be alive. -- Henry David Thoreau, in "Walden"


I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude. We are
for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay
in our chambers. A man thinking or working is always alone, let him be where
he will.
Henry David Thoreau, Walden(1854),V, Solitude


That government is best which governs least.
-- Henry David Thoreau, "Civil Disobedience"


Do not despair of life. You have no doubt force enough to overcome your
obstacles. Think of the fox prowling through wood and field in a winter night
for something to satisfy his hunger. Notwithstanding cold and hounds and
traps, his race survives. I do not believe any of them ever committed suicide.
-- Henry David Thoreau