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 The authority of government . . . can have no pure right over my person and property but what I concede to it. Henry David Thoreau liberty government authority You think that I am impoverishing myself withdrawing from men, but in my solitude I have woven for myself a silken web or chrysalis, and, nymph-like, shall ere long burst forth a more perfect creature, fitted for a higher society. Henry David Thoreau loneliness wisdom men Nature is fair in proportion as the youth is pure. The heavens and the earth are one flower ; the earth is the calyx, the heavens the corolla. Henry David Thoreau nature flower heaven Yet some can be patriotic who have no self-respect, and sacrifice the greater to the less. They love the soil which makes their graves, but have no sympathy with the spirit which may still animate their clay. Patriotism is a maggot in their heads. Henry David Thoreau patriotic sympathy love We should seek to be fellow students with the pupil, and should learn of, as well as with him, if we would be most helpful to him. Henry David Thoreau educational students would-be All good things are cheap: all bad are very dear. Henry David Thoreau dear good-things To regret deeply is to live afresh. Henry David Thoreau negativity regret It would be better if there were but one inhabitant to a square mile, as where I live. Henry David Thoreau solitude squares would-be I thrive best on solitude. If I have had a companion only one day in a week, unless it were one or two I could name, I find that the value of the week to me has been seriously affected. It dissipates my days, and often it takes me another week to get over it. Henry David Thoreau solitude names two Ah! I need solitude. I have come forth to this hill at sunset to see the forms of the mountains in the horizon - to behold and commune with something grander than man. Their mere distance and unprofanedness is an infinite encouragement. it is with infinite yearning and aspiration that I seek solitude, more and more resolved and strong; but with a certain weakness that I seek society ever. Henry David Thoreau distance encouragement strong I have lately got back to that glorious society called Solitude. Henry David Thoreau glorious solitude The Slothful do not have the time to become virtuous or despicable. Henry David Thoreau virtuous laziness sloth I do not value any view of the universe into which man and the institutions of man enter very largely and absorb much of the attention. Man is but the place where I stand, and the prospect hence is infinite. Henry David Thoreau views attention men Do not seek so anxiously to be developed, to subject yourself to many influences to be played on; it is all dissipation. Humility like darkness reveals the heavenly lights. Henry David Thoreau light humility darkness With all your science can you tell me how it is, and when it is, that light comes into the soul? Henry David Thoreau learning light soul I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. Henry David Thoreau transcendentalism practice wish Somehow strangely the vice of men gets well represented and protected but their virtue has none to plead its cause - nor any charter of immunities and rights. Henry David Thoreau get-well rights men The study of geometry is a petty and idle exercise of the mind, if it is applied to no larger system than the starry one. Mathematics should be mixed not only with physics but with ethics; that is mixed mathematics. Henry David Thoreau mind exercise science Even the facts of science may dust the mind by their dryness, unless they are ... rendered fertile by the dews of fresh and living truth. Knowledge does not come to us by details, but in flashes of light from heaven. Henry David Thoreau light science knowledge The fact which interests us most is the life of the naturalist. The purest science is still biographical. Nothing will dignify and elevate science while it is sundered so wholly from the moral life of its devotee. Henry David Thoreau biographies science facts
