Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreauwas an American essayist, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, and historian. A leading transcendentalist, Thoreau is best known for his book Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay Resistance to Civil Government, an argument for disobedience to an unjust state...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionAuthor
Date of Birth12 July 1817
CountryUnited States of America
solitude independence boundaries
Individuals, like nations, must have suitable broad and natural boundaries, even a considerable neutral ground, between them.
lonely lakes laughing
I am no more lonely than the loon in the pond that laughs so loud, or than Walden Pond itself. What company has that lonely lake,I pray?
lonely loneliness being-alone
We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers.
few greater man measure might require seeing shall tape understand understanding
We shall see but little way if we require to understand what we see. How few things can a man measure with the tape of his understanding! How many greater things might he be seeing in the meanwhile!
call close commonly good lie men pigs social together virtue warm
What men call social virtue, good fellowship, is commonly but the virtue of pigs in a litter, which lie close together to keep each other warm
achieving american-author goals motivational
What you get by achieving your goals is to as important as what you become by achieving your goals.
absolutely destiny origin philosophers-and-philosophy sort
What sort of philosophers are we, who know absolutely nothing about the origin and destiny of cats?
natural
How sweet is the perception of a new natural fact!
agent break government injustice life requires stop
If an injustice requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter-friction to stop the government machine.
life
Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life so.
good
Be not simply good - be good for something.
constant senses suffer
I have the habit of attention to such excess, that my senses get no rest - but suffer from a constant strain.
exaggerate expense life men praise regard
The life which men praise and regard as successful is but one kind. Why should we exaggerate any one kind at the expense of the others?
require
I say, beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes.