Should not every apartment in which man dwells be lofty enough to create some obscurity overhead, where flickering shadows may play at evening about the rafters? Henry David Thoreau More Quotes by Henry David Thoreau More Quotes From Henry David Thoreau I am from time to time congratulating myself on my general want of success as a lecturer; apparent want of success, but is it nota real triumph? I do my work clean as I go along, and they will not be likely to want me anywhere again. So there is no danger of my repeating myself, and getting to a barrel of sermons, which you must upset, and begin again with. Henry David Thoreau upset triumph real If we live in the Nineteenth Century, why should we not enjoy the advantages which the Nineteenth Century offers? Why should our life be in any respect provincial? Henry David Thoreau progress respect culture When the chopper would praise a pine, he will commonly tell you that the one he cut was so big that a yoke of oxen stood on its stump; as if that were what the pine had grown for, to become the footstool of oxen. Henry David Thoreau oxen yoke cutting I should have liked to come across a large community of pines, which had never been invaded by the lumbering army. Henry David Thoreau army community should-have Especially the transcendental philosophy needs the leaven of humor to render it light and digestible. Henry David Thoreau humor philosophy funny Truly, our greatest blessings are very cheap. Henry David Thoreau greatest-blessings blessing Under the one word "house" are included the schoolhouse, the almshouse, the jail, the tavern, the dwellinghouse; and the meanest shed or cave in which men live contains elements of all these. But nowhere on the earth stands the entire and perfect house. Henry David Thoreau jail perfect men I now first began to inhabit my house, I may say, when I began to use it for warmth as well as shelter. Henry David Thoreau shelter house may Instead of the scream of a fish hawk scaring the fishes, is heard the whistle of the steam-engine, arousing a country to its progress. Henry David Thoreau progress fishing country The hawk is aerial brother of the wave which he sails over and surveys, those his perfect air-inflated wings answering to the elemental unfledged pinions of the sea. Henry David Thoreau brother air sea To speak or do anything that shall concern mankind, one must speak and act as if well, or from that grain of health which he has left. Henry David Thoreau reform health speak Truly the stars were given for a consolation to man. Henry David Thoreau given stars men We have reason to be grateful for celestial phenomena, for they chiefly answer to the ideal in man. Henry David Thoreau grateful stars men The nonchalance and dolce-far-niente air of nature and society hint at infinite periods in the progress of mankind. Henry David Thoreau progress nature air When I go into a museum and see the mummies wrapped in their linen bandages, I see that the lives of men began to need reform as long ago as when they walked the earth. I come out into the streets, and meet men who declare that the time is near at hand for the redemption of the race. But as men lived in Thebes, so do they live in Dunstable today. Henry David Thoreau race men museums We are accustomed to say, that the mass of men are unprepared; but improvement is slow, because the few are not materially wiser or better than the many. Henry David Thoreau progress reform men The progress from an absolute to a limited monarchy, from a limited monarchy to a democracy, is a progress toward a true respect for the individual. Henry David Thoreau progress democracy government Is a democracy, such as we know it, the last improvement possible in government? Is it not possible to take a step further towardsrecognizing and organizing the rights of man? Henry David Thoreau democracy rights men Doubtless, we are as slow to conceive of Paradise as of Heaven, of a perfect natural as of a perfect spiritual world. We see how past ages have loitered and erred. "Is perhaps our generation free from irrationality and error? Have we perhaps reached now the summit of human wisdom, and need no more to look out for mental or physical improvement?" Undoubtedly, we are never so visionary as to be prepared for what the next hour may bring forth. Henry David Thoreau errors spiritual past The improvements of ages have had but little influence on the essential laws of man's existence: as our skeletons, probably, are not to be distinguished from those of our ancestors. Henry David Thoreau skeletons law men
