A true politeness does not result from any hasty and artificial polishing, it is true, but grows naturally in characters of the right grain and quality, through a long fronting of men and events, and rubbing on good and bad fortune. Henry David Thoreau More Quotes by Henry David Thoreau More Quotes From Henry David Thoreau The fault finder will find faults even in paradise and thereby miss the joys that recognition of the positives bring. Henry David Thoreau gratitude missing joy God is alone,-but the devil, he is far from being alone; he sees a great deal of company; he is legion. Henry David Thoreau legion deals devil Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all. Henry David Thoreau reading beer book The man of genius, like a dog with a bone, or the slave who has swallowed a diamond, or a patient with the gravel, sits afar and retired, off the road, hangs out no sign of refreshment for man and beast, but says, by all possible hints and signs, I wish to be alone,--good-by,--fare-well. But the Landlord can afford to live without privacy. Henry David Thoreau solitude dog men Most men would feel insulted if it were proposed to employ them in throwing stones over a wall, and then in throwing them back, merely that they might earn their wages. But many are no more worthily employed now. Henry David Thoreau wall work men I turned my face more exclusively than ever to the woods, where I was better known. Henry David Thoreau woods faces tree Let your life be a counter friction to stop the machine. Henry David Thoreau machines friction life-is I am alarmed when it happens that I have walked a mile into the woods bodily, without getting there in spirit. Henry David Thoreau sauntering woods spirit I had three chairs in my house; one for solitude, two for friendship, three for society. Henry David Thoreau home friendship two Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison. Henry David Thoreau men war history I think that there is nothing, not even crime, more opposed to poetry, to philosophy, ay, to life itself than this incessant business. Henry David Thoreau money business philosophy It appears to be a law that you cannot have a deep sympathy with both man and nature. Henry David Thoreau law sympathy men The animal merely makes a bed, which he warms with his body in a sheltered place; but man, having discovered fire, boxes up some air in a spacious apartment, and warms that, instead of robbing himself, makes that his bed, in which he can move about divested of more cumbrous clothing, maintain a kind of summer in the midst of winter, and by means of windows even admit the light and with a lamp lengthen out the day. Henry David Thoreau summer mean moving My greatest skill has been to want but little. Henry David Thoreau skills happiness life By my intimacy with nature I find myself withdrawn from man. My interest in the sun and the moon, in the morning and the evening, compels me to solitude. Henry David Thoreau moon morning men The heart is forever inexperienced. Henry David Thoreau inexperience forever heart To be admitted to Nature's hearth costs nothing. None is excluded, but excludes himself. You have only to push aside the curtain. Henry David Thoreau curtains cost nature The law will never make a man free; it is men who have got to make the law free. Henry David Thoreau freedom law men Night is certainly more novel and less profane than day. Henry David Thoreau valentines-day literature night f the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of government, let it go, let it go; perchance it will wear smooth - certainly the machine will wear out... but if it is of such a nature that it 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 machine. What I have to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to the wrong which I condemn. Henry David Thoreau let-it-go government law
