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
machines life-is friction
Let your life be a counter-friction to stop the machine. What I have to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to the wrong which I condemn.
deals
I have travelled a good deal in Concord.
religious taken men
The church is a sort of hospital for men's souls, and as full of quackery as the hospital for their bodies. Those who are taken into it live like pensioners in their Retreat or Sailors' Snug Harbor, where you may see a row of religious cripples sitting outside in sunny weather.
ignorance forgetfulness defects
The greatest and saddest defect is not credulity, but an habitual forgetfulness that our science is ignorance.
beautiful tears disease
Decay and disease are often beautiful, like the pearly tear of the shellfish and the hectic glow of consumption.
duty disregarded impunity
Duty is one and invariable; it requires no impossibilities, nor can it ever be disregarded with impunity.
atmosphere genius body
The very thrills of genius are disorganizing. The body is never quite acclimated to its atmosphere, but how often, succumbs and goes into a decline.
logic failing impulse
Impulse is, after all, the best linguist; its logic, if not conformable to Aristotle, cannot fail to be most convincing.
spring men confusion
Let a man take time enough for the most trivial deed, though it be but the paring of his nails. The buds swell imperceptibly, without hurry or confusion,--as if the short spring days were an eternity.
names ancient virtue
In ancient days the Pythagoreans were used to change names with each other,--fancying that each would share the virtues they admired in the other.
physiognomy active
We are all of us more or less active physiognomists.
successful men medicine
Nothing more strikingly betrays the credulity of mankind than medicine. Quackery is a thing universal, and universally successful. In this case it becomes literally true that no imposition is too great for the credulity of men.
book healthy
At least let us have healthy books.
book miracle
The book exists for us, perchance, which will explain our miracles and reveal new ones.