By a conscious effort of the mind we can stand aloof from actions and their consequences; and all things, good and bad, go by us like a torrent. Henry David Thoreau More Quotes by Henry David Thoreau More Quotes From Henry David Thoreau How rarely I meet with a man who can be free, even in thought! We all live according to rule. Some men are bedridden; all world-ridden. Henry David Thoreau men world I have learned that even the smallest house can be a home. Henry David Thoreau i-have-learned house home I love a life whose plot is simple. Henry David Thoreau simplicity plot simple It [is of] some advantage to live a primitive and frontier life, though in the midst of an outward civilization, if only to learn what are the gross necessities of life. Henry David Thoreau midst advantage civilization New York has her wilderness within her own borders; and though the sailors of Europe are familiar with the soundings of her Hudson, and Fulton long since invented the steamboat on its waters, an Indian is still necessary to guide her scientific men to its headwaters in the Adirondack country. Henry David Thoreau new-york native-american country Where the citizen uses a mere sliver or board, the pioneer uses the whole trunk of a tree. Henry David Thoreau pioneers boards tree The world rests on principles. Henry David Thoreau social-responsibility principles world We should endeavor practically in our lives to correct all the defects which our imagination detects. Henry David Thoreau reform imagination should So far as my experience goes, travelers generally exaggerate the difficulties of the way. Like most evil, the difficulty is imaginary; for what's the hurry? Henry David Thoreau optimism evil travel The Ethiopian cannot change his skin nor the leopard his spots. Henry David Thoreau leopards spots skins Experience is in the fingers and head. The heart is inexperienced. Henry David Thoreau experience friendship art The eye may see for the hand, but not for the mind. Henry David Thoreau eye mind hands Nations! What are nations? Tartars! and Huns! and Chinamen! Like insects they swarm. The historian strives in vain to make them memorable. It is for want of a man that there are so many men. It is individuals that populate the world. Henry David Thoreau memorable men world When we want culture more than potatoes, and illumination more than sugar-plums, then the great resources of a world are taxed anddrawn out, and the result, or staple production, is, not slaves, nor operatives, but men,--those rare fruits called heroes, saints, poets, philosophers, and redeemers. Henry David Thoreau philosophical hero men In summer we live out of doors, and have only impulses and feelings, which are all for action, and must wait commonly for the stillness and longer nights of autumn and winter before any thought will subside; we are sensible that behind the rustling leaves, and the stacks of grain, and the bare clusters of the grape, there is the field of a wholly new life, which no man has lived; that even this earth was made for more mysterious and nobler inhabitants than men and women. In the hues of October sunsets, we see the portals to other mansions than those which we occupy. Henry David Thoreau autumn sunset summer Homer and Shakespeare and Milton and Marvell and Wordsworth are but the rustling of leaves and crackling of twigs in the forest, and there is not yet the sound of any bird. The Muse has never lifted up her voice to sing. Henry David Thoreau voice sound bird The mode of clearing and planting is to fell the trees, and burn once what will burn, then cut them up into suitable lengths, rollinto heaps, and burn again; then, with a hoe, plant potatoes where you can come at the ground between the stumps and charred logs; for a first crop the ashes suffice for manure, and no hoeing being necessary the first year. In the fall, cut, roll, and burn again, and so on, till the land is cleared; and soon it is ready for grain, and to be laid down. Henry David Thoreau cutting years fall An ordinary man will work every day for a year at shoveling dirt to support his body, or a family of bodies; but he is an extraordinary man who will work a whole day in a year for the support of his soul. Even the priests, men of God, so called, for the most part confess that they work for the support of the body. Henry David Thoreau support men years If within the sophisticated man there is not an unsophisticated one, then he is but one of the devil's angels. Henry David Thoreau experience angel men The village is the place to which the roads tend, a sort of expansion of the highway, as a lake of a river.... The word is from the Latin villa, which together with via, a way, or more anciently ved and vella, Varro derives from veho, to carry, because the villa is the place to and from which things are carried.... Hence, too, the Latin word vilis and our vile, also villain. This suggests what kind of degeneracy villagers are liable to. They are wayworn by the travel that goes by and over them, without traveling themselves. Henry David Thoreau lakes latin travel
