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
effort fall lie men talking
Men will lie on their backs, talking about the fall of man, and never make an effort to get up
along behind bones cannot farmer food furnishes jerk material plow raw says spite system talks vegetable walking
One farmer says to me, ''You cannot live on vegetable food solely, for it furnishes nothing to make bones with;'' and so he religiously devotes a part of his day to supplying his system with the raw material of bones; walking all the while he talks behind his oxen, which, with vegetable-made bones, jerk him and his lumbering plow along in spite of every obstacle.
contact daily life shown solid talk wind
Talk of mysteries! Think of our life in Nature- daily to be shown matter, To come in contact with it- rocks, trees, wind on our cheeks. The solid earth! . . .
priest support taxed
I did not see why the schoolmaster should be taxed to support the priest, and not the priest the schoolmaster
flowers fragrance greet immortal life nature night
If the day and the night are such that you greet them with joy, and life emits a fragrance like flowers and sweet-scented herbs, is more elastic, more starry, more immortal -- that is your success. All nature is your congratulation . . .
earnest explore infinitely land learn mysterious mystery require sea time
At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be infinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable.
beware clothes require
Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes.
conforming conformity high life living opinion
As to conforming outwardly, and living your own life inwardly, I have not a very high opinion of that course.
cultivate desirable respect
It is not so desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right
brute deal deep fields hungry spirits stormy walks weather
Take long walks in stormy weather or through deep snows in the fields andwoods, if you would keep your spirits up. Deal with brute nature. Be coldand hungry and weary.
youth plant sail
The youth may build or plant or sail, only let him not be hindered from doing that which he tells me he would like to do.
adventure canadians carried clear england exposure hardship led possessed spirit though
The Canadians of those days, at least, possessed a roving spirit of adventure which carried them further, in exposure to hardship and danger, than ever the New England colonist went, and led them, though not to clear and colonize the wilderness, yet
follows generation laughs
Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but religiously follows the new.
american-author friendship intelligence language
The language of friendship is not words, but meanings. It is an intelligence about language.