Henry David Thoreau
"As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler; solitude will not be solitude, poverty will not be poverty, nor weakness weakness."
316 Quotes
"As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler; solitude will not be solitude, poverty will not be poverty, nor weakness weakness."
Henry David Thoreau
"There is just as much beauty visible to us in the landscape as we are prepared to appreciate, and not a grain more. ... A man sees only what concerns him."
Henry David Thoreau
"Some of my pleasantest hours were during the long rain-storms in the spring or fall, which confined me to the house for the afternoon as well as the forenoon, soothed by their ceaseless roar and pelting; when an early twilight ushered in a long evening in which many thoughts had time to take root and unfold themselves. In those driving northeast rains which tried the village houses so, when the maids stood ready with mop and pail in front entries to keep the deluge out, I sat behind my door in my little house, which was all entry, and thoroughly enjoyed its protection."
Henry David Thoreau
"It is an interesting question how far men would retain their relative rank if they were divested of their clothes."
Henry David Thoreau
"It is better to have your head in the clouds, and know where you are... than to breathe the clearer atmosphere below them, and think that you are in paradise."
Henry David Thoreau
"The lakes are something which you are unprepared for; they lie up so high, exposed to the light, and the forest is diminished to a fine fringe on their edges, with here and there a blue mountain, like amethyst jewels set around some jewel of the first water, - so anterior, so superior, to all the changes that are to take place on their shores, even now civil and refined, and fair as they can ever be."
Henry David Thoreau
"Life in us is like the water in a river."
Henry David Thoreau
"It is truly enough said that a corporation has no conscience. But a corporation of conscientious men is a corporation with a conscience."
Henry David Thoreau
"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"
Henry David Thoreau
"We must walk consciously only part way toward our goal, and then leap in the dark to our success."
Henry David Thoreau
"Most of the luxuries, and many of the so called comforts of life, are not only indispensable, but positive hinderances to the elevation of mankind. With respect to luxuries and comforts, the wisest have ever lived a more simple and meagre life than the poor."
Henry David Thoreau
"The boy gathers materials for a temple, and then when he is thirty, concludes to build a woodshed"
Henry David Thoreau
"I have heard of a man lost in the woods and dying of famine and exhaustion at the foot of a tree, whose loneliness was relieved by the grotesque visions with which, owing to bodily weakness, his diseased imagination surrounded him, and which he believed to be real. So also, owing to bodily and mental health and strength, we may be continually cheered by a like but more normal and natural society, and come to know that we are never alone."
Henry David Thoreau
"Some circumstantial evidence is very strong, as when you find a trout in the milk."
Henry David Thoreau
"An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day."
Henry David Thoreau
"It is not enought to be busy, so are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?"
Henry David Thoreau
"Happiness is like a butterfly; the more you chase it, the more it will elude you, but if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulders..."
Henry David Thoreau
"The question is not what you look at, but what you see. It is only necessary to behold the least fact or phenomenon, however familiar, from a point a hair's breadth aside from our habitual path or routine, to be overcome, enchanted by its beauty and significance."
Henry David Thoreau
"I would rather sit on a pumpkin, and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion."
Henry David Thoreau
"I have an immense appetite for solitude, like an infant for sleep, and if I don't get enough for this year, I shall cry all the next."
Henry David Thoreau
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