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
atheist support priests
I do not see why the schoolmaster should be taxed to support the priest, and not the priest the schoolmaster.
weed garden bird
Shall I not rejoice also at the abundance of the weeds whose seeds are the granary of the birds?
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.
ties aging drowning
Rescue the drowning and tie your shoestrings.
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.
nature sorrow environment
Nature refuses to sympathize with our sorrow. She seems not to have provided for, but by a thousand contrivances against it.
betrayal weakness complaining
Sincerity is a great but rare virtue, and we pardon to it much complaining, and the betrayal of many weaknesses.
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.
encouragement strong distance
Ah! I need solitude. I have come forth to this hill at sunset to see the forms of the mountains in the horizon - to behold and commune with something grander than man. Their mere distance and unprofanedness is an infinite encouragement. it is with infinite yearning and aspiration that I seek solitude, more and more resolved and strong; but with a certain weakness that I seek society ever.
sloth laziness virtuous
The Slothful do not have the time to become virtuous or despicable.
afterlife world earth
Asked whether or not he believed in an afterlife, Thoreau quipped, "One world at a time."
humility light darkness
Do not seek so anxiously to be developed, to subject yourself to many influences to be played on; it is all dissipation. Humility like darkness reveals the heavenly lights.