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0351b3c
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Which would have advanced the most at the end of a month--the boy who had made his own jackknife from the ore which he had dug and smelted, reading as much as would be necessary for this--or the boy who had attended the lectures on metallurgy at the Institute in the meanwhile, and had received a Rodgers' penknife from his father? Which would be most likely to cut his fingers?... To my astonishment I was informed on leaving college that I ha..
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Henry David Thoreau |
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1af1d39
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When I ask for a garment of a particular form, my tailoress tells me gravely, "They do not make them so now," not emphasizing the "They" at all, as if she quoted an authority as impersonal as the Fates, and I find it difficult to get made what I want, simply because she cannot believe that I mean what I say, that I am so rash. When I hear this oracular sentence, I am for a moment absorbed in thought, emphasizing to myself each word separate..
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Henry David Thoreau |
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288c263
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So much for a blind obedience to a blundering oracle, throwing the stones over their heads behind them, and not seeing where they fell.
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Henry David Thoreau |
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52ed477
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We may not arrive at our port within a calculable period, but we would preserve the true course.
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Henry David Thoreau |
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73b8135
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But I retained the landscape, and I have since annually carried off what it yielded without a wheelbarrow.
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Henry David Thoreau |
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f62536b
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He has no time to be anything but a machine. How can he remember well his ignorance--which his growth requires--who has so often to use his knowledge? We should feed and clothe him gratuitously sometimes, and recruit him with our cordials, before we judge of him. The
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Henry David Thoreau |
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9fa9179
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When a man is warmed by the several modes which I have described, what does he want next? Surely not more warmth of the same kind, as more and richer food, larger and more splendid houses, finer and more abundant clothing, more numerous, incessant, and hotter fires, and the like. When he has obtained those things which are necessary to life,
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Henry David Thoreau |
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703c90c
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July 6. I wish to meet the facts of life--the vital facts, which are the phenomena or actuality the gods meant to show us--face to face, and so I came down here. Life! who knows what it is, what it does? If I am not quite right here, I am less wrong than before; and now let us see what they will have.
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Henry David Thoreau |
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a710140
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There is no scent in it so wholesome as that of the pines, nor any fragrance so penetrating and restorative as the life-everlasting in high pastures.
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Henry David Thoreau |
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b464bab
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Those who have not learned to read the ancient classics in the language in which they were written must have a very imperfect knowledge of the history of the human race; for it is remarkable that no transcript of them has ever been made into any modern tongue, unless our civilization itself may be regarded as such a transcript. Homer has never yet been printed in English, nor AEschylus, nor Virgil even--works as refined, as solidly done, an..
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Henry David Thoreau |
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90eeb20
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The commonest and cheapest sounds, as the barking of a dog, produce the same effect on fresh and healthy ears that the rarest music does. It depends on your appetite for sound. Just as a crust is sweeter to a healthy appetite than confectionery to a pampered or diseased one. It is better that these cheap sounds be music to us than that we have the rarest ears for music in any other sense. I have lain awake at night many a time to think of t..
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Henry David Thoreau |
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48cf6cb
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If it is necessary, omit one bridge over the river, go round a little there, and throw one arch at least over the darker gulf of ignorance which surrounds us.
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Henry David Thoreau |
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52bdfbf
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Is it not a reproach that man is a carnivorous animal? True, he can and does live, in a great measure, by preying on other animals; but this is a miserable way - as anyone who will go to snaring rabbits, or slaughtering lambs, may learn - and he shall be regarded as a benefactor of his race who shall teach man to confine himself to a more innocent and wholesome diet. Whatever my own practice may be, I have no doubt that it is part of the de..
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Henry David Thoreau |
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0addba1
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Most men, even in this comparatively free country, through mere ignorance and mistake, are so occupied with the factitious cares and superfluously coarse labors of life that its finer fruits cannot be plucked by them. Their fingers, from excessive toil, are too clumsy and tremble too much for that. Actually, the laboring man has not leisure for a true integrity day by day; he cannot afford to sustain the manliest relations to men; his honor..
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work
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Henry David Thoreau |
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80a0559
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Not that food which entereth into the moth defileth a man, but the appetite with which it is eaten. It is neither the quality nor the quantity, but the devotion to sensual savors; when that which is eaten is not a viand to sustain our animal, or inspire our spiritual life, but food for the worms that possess us.
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Henry David Thoreau |
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1fb911a
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Genius is not a retainer to any emperor, or is its material silver, or gold, or marble, except to a trifling extent.
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Henry David Thoreau |
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2a80790
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If some have the pleasure of riding on a rail, others have the misfortune to be ridden upon.
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Henry David Thoreau |
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f9ac0b6
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It is time that we had uncommon schools, that we did not leave off our education when we begin to be men and women.
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educational-philosophy
educational-system
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Henry David Thoreau |
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7bdfe99
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I was walking in a meadow, the source of a small brook, when the sun at last, just before setting, after a cold, gray day, reached a clear stratum in the horizon, and the softest, brightest morning sunlight fell on the dry grass and on the stems of the trees in the opposite horizon and on the leaves of the shrub oaks on the hillside, while our shadows stretched long over the meadow east-ward, as if we were the only motes in its beams. It wa..
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Henry David Thoreau |
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7068543
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It is remarkable how easily and insensibly we fall into a particular route, and make a beaten track for ourselves...The surface of the earth is soft and impressible by the feet of men and so with the paths which the mind travels.
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Henry David Thoreau |
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d85176e
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There are other, savager, and more primeval aspects of Nature than our poets have sung. It is only white man's poetry. Homer and Ossian even can never revive in London or Boston. And yet behold how these cities are refreshed by the mere tradition, or the imperfectly transmitted fragance and flavor of these wild fruits. If we could listen but for an instant to the chaunt of the Indian muse, we should understand why he will not exchange his s..
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Henry David Thoreau |
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067a53b
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It is not the tailor alone who is the ninth part of a man; it is as much the preacher, and the merchant, and the farmer. Where is this division of labor to end? and what object does it finally serve?
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Henry David Thoreau |
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47c03c3
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My prickles or smoothness are as much a quality of your hand as of myself. I cannot tell you what I am, more than a ray of the summer's sun. What I am I am, and say not. Being is the great explainer.
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Henry David Thoreau |
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2bc1c97
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The rays which stream through the shutter will be no longer remembered when the shutter is wholly removed.
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nature
transience
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Henry David Thoreau |
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0d7d816
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Let us not underrate the value of a fact; it will one day flower in a truth.
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Henry David Thoreau |
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3d64f40
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My life is like a stroll upon the beach, As near the ocean's edge as I can go.
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Henry David Thoreau |
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126bb6e
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Whate'er we leave to God, God doesAnd blesses us.
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Henry David Thoreau |
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9a14ad5
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She with one breath attunes the spheres, And also my poor human heart.
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Henry David Thoreau |
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0fc77fc
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A gun gives you the body, not the bird.
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Henry David Thoreau |
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0d1c1c9
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An early morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.
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Henry David Thoreau |
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bcbfb3a
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We are as much as we see. Faith is sight and knowledge. The hands only serve the eyes.
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Henry David Thoreau |
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cc633b7
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It is a great art to saunter.
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Henry David Thoreau |
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1c3fcd2
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Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves.
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Henry David Thoreau |
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8bdb446
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How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.
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Henry David Thoreau |
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fd5a4b7
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The bluebird carries the sky on his back.
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Henry David Thoreau |
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7ef9f46
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The perception of beauty is a moral test.
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Henry David Thoreau |
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10cc35b
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Every poet has trembled on the verge of science.
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Henry David Thoreau |
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ac99bcf
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Fire is the most tolerable third party.
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Henry David Thoreau |
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0a50fa7
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Some circumstantial evidence is very strong, as when you find a trout in the milk.
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Henry David Thoreau |
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4b9e50b
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That man is richest whose pleasures are the cheapest.
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Henry David Thoreau |
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c1c2edf
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It is in vain to dream of a wildness distant from ourselves.
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Henry David Thoreau |
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6e8483c
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The savage in man is never quite eradicated.
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Henry David Thoreau |
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5af78dc
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Any fool can make a ruleAnd every fool will mind it.
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Henry David Thoreau |
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b33a04c
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Any man more right than his neighbors constitutes a majority of one.
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Henry David Thoreau |