Not that the story need be long, but it will take a long while to make it short. Henry David Thoreau More Quotes by Henry David Thoreau More Quotes From Henry David Thoreau If I seem to boast more than is becoming, my excuse is that I brag for humanity rather than for myself. Henry David Thoreau becoming literature humanity If you would convince a man that he does wrong, do right. Men will believe what they see. Henry David Thoreau doe men believe How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book. Henry David Thoreau reading life book I have a room all to myself; it is nature. Henry David Thoreau nature rooms Humility like darkness reveals the heavenly lights. Henry David Thoreau light humility darkness if i repent of anything, it is very likely to be my good behavior. what demon possessed me that i behaved so well? Henry David Thoreau rebellion demon behavior I believe in the forest, and in the meadow, and in the night in which the corn grows. Henry David Thoreau corn night believe A sentence should be read as if its author, had he held a plough instead of a pen, could have drawn a furrow deep and straight to the end. Henry David Thoreau sentences ends should All change is a miracle to contemplate, but it is a miracle which is taking place every instant. Henry David Thoreau nature business change Read not the Times, read the Eternities. Henry David Thoreau eternity I can alter my life by altering my attitude. He who would have nothing to do with thorns must never attempt to gather flowers. Henry David Thoreau thorns flower attitude Life in us is like the water in a river. Henry David Thoreau rivers water Even voting for the right is doing nothing for it. It is only expressing to men feebly your desire that it should prevail. A wise man will not leave the right to the mercy of chance, nor wish it to prevail through the power of the majority. There is but little virtue in the action of masses of men. Henry David Thoreau voting wise men Books are the carriers of civilization. Without books, history is silent. Henry David Thoreau literature-history civilization book Be resolutely and faithfully what you are; be humbly what you aspire to be. Henry David Thoreau aspire humble If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; or the old laws be expanded, and interpreted in his favor in a more liberal sense, and he will live with the license of a higher order of beings. Henry David Thoreau live-life ambition dream To read well, that is, to read true books in a true spirit, is a noble exercise, and one that will tax the reader more than any exercise which the customs of the day esteem. It requires a training such as the athletes underwent, the steady intention almost of the whole life to this object. Books must be read as deliberately and reservedly as they were written. Henry David Thoreau athlete exercise book My enemies are worms, cool days, and most of all woodchucks. Henry David Thoreau woodchucks worms enemy In any weather, at any hour of the day or night, I have been anxious to improve the nick of time, and notch it on my stick too; to stand on the meeting of two eternities, the past and future, which is precisely the present moment; to toe that line. Henry David Thoreau future time past Good poetry seems so simple and natural a thing that when we meet it we wonder that all men are not always poets. Poetry is nothing but healthy speech. Henry David Thoreau poetry simple men
