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8d46cc4
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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.
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philosophy
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Henry David Thoreau |
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7b8250e
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I was not born to be forced. I will breathe after my own fashion. Let us see who is the strongest. What force has a multitude? They only can force me who obey a higher law than I. They force me to become like themselves. I do not hear of men being forced to live this way or that by masses of men. What sort of life were that to live? When I meet a government which says to me, "Your money or your life," why should I be in haste to give it my ..
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Henry David Thoreau |
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3432e64
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Is there not a sort of blood shed when the conscience is wounded? Through this wound a man's real manhood and immortality flow out, and he bleeds to an everlasting death.
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Henry David Thoreau |
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e8786f5
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Let every man make known what kind of government would command his respect, and that will be one step toward obtaining it.
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politics
political-systems
respect
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Henry David Thoreau |
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8d1b747
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I am not responsible for the successful working of the machinery of society. I am not the son of the engineer. I perceive that, when an acorn and a chestnut fall side by side, the one does not remain inert to make way for the other, but both obey their own laws, and spring and grow and flourish as best they can, till one, perchance, overshadows and destroys the other. If a plant cannot live according to nature, it dies; and so a man.
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Henry David Thoreau |
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c3857e0
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The highest that we can attain to is not Knowledge, but Sympathy with Intelligence.
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Henry David Thoreau |
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97d5646
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I only know myself as a human entity; the scene, so to speak, of thoughts and affections; and I'm sensible of a certain doubleness by which I can stand as remote from myself as another. However intense my experience, I am conscious of the presence and criticism of a part of me, which, as it were, is not a part of me, but spectator, sharing no experience, but taking note of it; and that is no more I than it is you. When the play, it may be t..
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Henry David Thoreau |
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1268036
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And I am sure that I never read any memorable news in a newspaper. If we read of one man robbed, or murdered, or killed by accident, or one house burned, or one vessel wrecked, or one steamboat blown up, or one cow run over on the Western Railroad, or one mad dog killed, or one lot of grasshoppers in the winter - we never need read of another. [...] To a philosopher all "news", as it is called, is gossip, and they who edit and read it are o..
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Henry David Thoreau |
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a030b06
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There were times when I could not afford to sacrifice the bloom of the present moment to any work, whether of the head or hands. I love a broad margin to my life. [...] They were not time subtracted from my life, but so much over and above my usual allowance. [...] This was sheer idleness to my fellow-townsmen, no doubt; but if the birds and flowers had tried me by their standard, I should not have been found wanting.
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Henry David Thoreau |
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39c910c
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The doctrines of despair, of spiritual or political tyranny or servitude, were never taught by such as shared the serenity of nature.
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Henry David Thoreau |
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09f9a39
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It is pleasant to walk over the beds of these fresh, crisp, and rustling leaves. How beautifully they go to their graves! how gently lay themselves down and turn to mould!--painted of a thousand hues, and fit to make the beds of us living. So they troop to their last resting-place, light and frisky. They put on no weeds, but merrily they go scampering over the earth, selecting the spot, choosing a lot, ordering no iron fence, whispering all..
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Henry David Thoreau |
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05fe868
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The cart before the horse is neither beautiful nor useful. Before we can adorn our houses with beautiful objects the walls must be stripped, and our lives must be stripped, and beautiful housekeeping and beautiful living be laid for a foundation; now, a taste for the beautiful is most cultivated out of doors, where there is no house and no housekeeper.
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nature
simplicity-in-life
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Henry David Thoreau |
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ed0971a
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I do not wish to quarrel with any man or nation. I do not wish to split hairs, to make fine distinctions, or set myself up as better than my neighbors. I seek rather, I may say, even an excuse for conforming to the laws of the land. I am but too ready to conform to them.
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unity
politics
law
peace
obedience
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Henry David Thoreau |
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14fd0de
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You must get your living by loving, or at least half your life is a failure.
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Henry David Thoreau |
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936d4c7
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Yet this government never of itself furthered any enterprise, but by the alacrity with which it got out of its way. It does not keep the country free. It does not settle the West. It does not educate. The character inherent in the American people has done all that has been accomplished; and it would have done somewhat more, if the government had not sometimes got in its way.
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Henry David Thoreau |
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7637ee0
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The head monkey at Paris puts on a traveller's cap, and all the monkeys in America do the same.
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Henry David Thoreau |
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0229be8
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Just so hollow and ineffectual, for the most part, is our ordinary conversation. Surface meets surface. When our life ceases to be inward and private, conversation degenerates into mere gossip. We rarely meet a man who can tell us any news which he has not read in a newspaper, or been told by his neighbor; and, for the most part, the only difference between us and our fellow is, that he has seen the newspaper, or been out to tea, and we hav..
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nature
information-overload
information
news
gossip
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Henry David Thoreau |
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58d585d
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The works of the great poets have never yet been read by mankind, for only great poets can read the.
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poets
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Henry David Thoreau |
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23104f4
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In Literature it is only the wild that attracts us.
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literature
writing
tameness
wildness
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Henry David Thoreau |
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bcd636b
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There were times when I could not afford to sacrifice the bloom of the present moment to any work, whether of the head or hands.
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work
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Henry David Thoreau |
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1726e1c
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I cannot come nearer to God and Heaven Than I live to Walden even. I am its stony shore, And the breeze that passes o'er; In the hollow of my hand Are its water and its sand,
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Henry David Thoreau |
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6744ab2
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Penso che dovremmo essere uomini prima di essere sudditi. Non e da augurarsi che l'uomo coltivi il rispetto per le leggi ma piuttosto che rispetti cio che e giusto.
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Henry David Thoreau |
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a935353
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Las obras de los grandes poetas aun no han sido leidas por la humanidad -solo los grandes poetas son capaces de leerlas-. Las masas, sin embargo, las leen como si leyeran las estrellas...; si hay suerte, como astrologos, pero no como astronomos. A la mayoria de las personas se les ensena a leer solo para su propia comodidad, como si se les ensenara a contar para que puedan comprobar las cuentas y no ser enganados. Pero del leer como noble e..
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lectura
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Henry David Thoreau |
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034da64
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I was determined to know beans. When they were growing, I used to hoe from five o'clock in the morning till noon, and commonly spent the rest of the day about other affairs. Consider the intimate and curious acquaintance one makes with various kinds of weeds--it will bear some iteration in the account, for there was no little iteration in the labor--disturbing their delicate organizations so ruthlessly, and making such invidious distinction..
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Henry David Thoreau |
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92540d5
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It is remarkable that, notwithstanding the universal favor with which the New Testament is outwardly received, and even the bigotry with which it is defended, there is no hospitality shown to, there is no appreciation of, the order of truth with which it deals.
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religion
new-testament
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Henry David Thoreau |
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2f88f6e
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The man I meet with is not often so instructive as the silence he breaks.
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speech
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Henry David Thoreau |
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dc168b9
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Beauty and true wealth are always thus cheap and despised. Heaven might be defined as the place which men avoid.
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Henry David Thoreau |
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b92121e
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I have yet to hear the first syllable of valuable or even earnest advice from my seniors. They have told me nothing, and probably cannot tell me anything to the purpose. Here is life, an experiment to a great extent untried by me; but it does not avail me that they have tried it. If I have any experience which I think valuable, I am sure to reflect that this my Mentors said nothing about
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Henry David Thoreau |
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6bdd546
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Every part of nature teaches that the passing away of one life is the making room for another. The oak dies down to the ground, leaving within its rind a rich virgin mould, which will impart a vigorous life to an infant forest. The pine leaves a sandy and sterile soil, the harder woods a strong and fruitful mould. So this constant abrasion and decay makes the soil of my future growth. As I live now so shall I reap. If I grow pines and birch..
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Henry David Thoreau |
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57c4a0a
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The Harivansa says, "An abode without birds is like a meat without seasoning." Such was not my abode, for I found myself suddenly neighbor to the birds; not by having imprisoned one, but having caged myself near them."
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Henry David Thoreau |
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ba79b90
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I should not talk so much about myself if there were anybody else whom I knew as well. Unfortunately, I am confined to this theme by the narrowness of my experience.
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Henry David Thoreau |
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32eb2b0
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No man loses ever on a lower level by magnanimity on a higher. Superfluous wealth can buy superfluities only. Money is not required to buy one necessary of the soul.
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Henry David Thoreau |
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c03c97b
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I am of the nature of Stone. It takes the summer's sun to warm it.
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Henry David Thoreau |
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d37d28a
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With a little more deliberation in the choice of their pursuits, all men would perhaps become essentially students and observers, for certainly their nature and destiny are interesting to all alike.
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Henry David Thoreau |
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a642c14
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He was so genuine and unsophisticated that no introduction would serve to introduce him, more than if you introduced a woodchuck to your neighbor.
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Henry David Thoreau |
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a9ce4ad
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The simple style is bad for the savage because he does worse than to obtain the luxuries of life; it is good for the philosopher because he does better than to work for them. The question is whether you can bear freedom....
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Henry David Thoreau |
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62da920
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They required to be dusted daily, when the furniture of my mind was all undusted still.
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Henry David Thoreau |
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32b1cab
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If you would get exercise, go in search of the springs of life.
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Henry David Thoreau |
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99fa7ed
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No puedo creer que nuestro sistema industrial sea el mejor modo por el que podamos vestirnos. La condicion de los obreros se parece cada dia mas a la de los ingleses y no hay que sorprenderse, ya que, por lo que he oido y observado, el objetivo principal no es que la humanidad este bien y honestamente vestida, sino, indudablemente, que las corporaciones se enriquezcan.
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Henry David Thoreau |
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cb78234
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Every day or two I strolled to the village to hear some of the gossip which is incessantly going on there, circulating either from mouth to mouth, or from newspaper to newspaper, and which, taken in homeopathic doses, was really as refreshing in its way as the rustle of leaves and the peeping of frogs.
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Henry David Thoreau |
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3d1463e
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That man who does not believe that each day contains an earlier, more sacred, and auroral hour than he has yet profaned, has despaired of life, and is pursuing a descending and darkening way.
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Henry David Thoreau |
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89cab63
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Shall we always study to obtain more of these things, and not sometimes to be content with less?
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Henry David Thoreau |
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a20c067
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I like sometimes to take rank hold on life and spend my day more as the animals do.
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Henry David Thoreau |
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2225269
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He understood, as he would write in "Walking," that "the hero is commonly the simplest and obscurest of men." --
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Henry David Thoreau |