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
kindness character real-friends
We are sometimes made aware of a kindness long passed, and realize that there have been times when our friends' thoughts of us were of so pure and lofty a character that they passed over us like the winds of heaven unnoticed; when they treated us not as what we were, but as what we aspired to be.
kindness doing-good where-you-are
Begin where you are and such as you are, without aiming mainly to become of more worth, and with kindness aforethought, go about doing good.
genius failing hours
Follow your genius closely enough, and it will not fail to show you a fresh prospect every hour.
learning men judging
But man's capacities have never been measured; nor are we to judge of what he can do by any precedents, so little have been tried.
dream sunset night
Every sunset which I witness inspires me with the desire to go to a west as distant and as fair as that into which the Sun goes down. He appears to migrate westward daily and tempt us to follow him. He is the Great Western Pioneer whom the nations follow. We dream all night of those mountain ridges in the horizon, though they may be of vapor only, which were last gilded by his rays.
time eternity-of-life fishing
Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in. I drink at it; but while I drink I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. Its thin current slides away, but eternity remains.
dream time memories
We seem but to linger in manhood to tell the dreams of our childhood, and they vanish out of memory ere we learn the language.
time people moles
How earthy old people become --moldy as the grave! Their wisdom smacks of the earth. There is no foretaste of immortality in it. They remind me of earthworms and mole crickets.
self-esteem book dull
It is not all books that are as dull as their readers.
dream beer men
Instead of water we got here a draught of beer, a lumberer's drink, which would acclimate and naturalize a man at once,-which would make him see green, and, if he slept, dream that he heard the wind sough among the pines.
time sea land
Our last deed, like the young of the land crab, wends its way to the sea of cause and effect as soon as born, and makes a drop there to eternity.
life-changing thinking assuming
The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right.
winter roots littles
We must take root; send out some little fibre at least, even every winter day.
honesty mean men
Absolutely speaking, Do unto others as you would that they should do unto you is by no means a golden rule, but the best of current silver. An honest man would have but little occasion for it. It is golden not to have any rule at all in such a case.