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 What is called genius is the abundance of life and health. Henry David Thoreau health inspirational life If you take this life to be simply what old religious folks pretend (I mean the effete, gone to seed in a drought, mere human galls stung by the devil once), then all your joy and serenity is reduced to grinning and bearing it. The fact is, you have got to take the world on your shoulders like Atlas, and "put along" with it. You will do this for an idea's sake, and your success will be in proportion to your devotion to ideas. It may make your back ache occasionally, but you will have the satisfaction of hanging it or twirling it to suit yourself. Henry David Thoreau religious mean ideas The intercourse of the sexes, I have dreamed, is incredibly beautiful, too fair to be remembered. I have had thoughts about it, but they are among the most fleeting and irrecoverable in my experience. Henry David Thoreau experience beautiful sex In 1694 a law was passed "that every settler who deserted a town for fear of the Indians should forfeit all his rights therein." But now, at any rate, as I have frequently observed, a man may desert the fertile frontier territories of truth and justice, which are the State's best lands, for fear of far more insignificant foes, without forfeiting any of his civil rights therein. Nay, townships are granted to deserters, and the General Court, as I am sometimes inclined to regard it, is but a deserters' camp itself. Henry David Thoreau rights law men We slander the hyena; man is the fiercest and cruelest animal. Henry David Thoreau humanity animal men Let your capital be simplicity and contentment. Henry David Thoreau simplicity contentment There is nothing more difficult to find than oneself. Henry David Thoreau difficult oneself I have heard of a man lost in the woods and dying of famine and exhaustion at the foot of a tree, whose loneliness was relieved by the grotesque visions with which, owing to bodily weakness, his diseased imagination surrounded him, and which he believed to be real. So also, owing to bodily and mental health and strength, we may be continually cheered by a like but more normal and natural society, and come to know that we are never alone. Henry David Thoreau loneliness real men What exercise is to the body, employment is to the mind and morals. Henry David Thoreau mind exercise work The eye is the jewel of the body. Henry David Thoreau body eye jewels I came into this world, not chiefly to make this a good place to live in, but to live in it, be it good or bad. Henry David Thoreau freedom law world Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth. Henry David Thoreau money inspirational love When we are unhurried and wise, we perceive that only great and worthy things have any permanent and absolute existence, that petty fears and petty pleasures are but the shadow of the reality. Henry David Thoreau wise fear reality I have found that no exertion of the legs can bring two minds much nearer to one another. Henry David Thoreau legs mind two The only sin in the world is ignorance. Henry David Thoreau sin ignorance world What old people say you cannot do, you try and find that you can. Old deeds for old people, and new deeds for new. Henry David Thoreau workout change people Men are born to succeed, not to fail. Henry David Thoreau inspiration success life Any nobleness begins at once to refine a man's features, any meanness or sensuality to imbrute them. Henry David Thoreau flesh-and-blood character men I was not designed to be forced. I will breathe after my own fashion. Let us see who is the strongest. Henry David Thoreau individuality fashion strength The youth gets together his materials to build a bridge to the moon, or, perchance, a palace or temple on the earth, and, at length, the middle-aged man concludes to build a woodshed with them. Henry David Thoreau moon time men
