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 You may rely on it that you have the best of me in my books, and that I am not worth seeing personally, the stuttering, blunderingclod-hopper that I am. Even poetry, you know, is in one sense an infinite brag and exaggeration. Not that I do not stand on all that I have written,--but what am I to the truth I feebly utter? Henry David Thoreau poetry truth book We are all of us Apollos serving some Admetus. Henry David Thoreau poet poetry labor I know very well what Goethe meant when he said that he never had a chagrin but he made a poem out of it. I have altogether too much patience of this kind. Henry David Thoreau too-much poetry disappointment The state does not demand justice of its members, but thinks that it succeeds very well with the least degree of it, hardly more than rogues practice; and so do the neighborhood and the family. What is commonly called Friendship even is only a little more honor among rogues. Henry David Thoreau family practice thinking Our actual Friends are but distant relations of those to whom we are pledged. Henry David Thoreau friends relation friendship We must love our friend so much that she shall be associated with our purest and holiest thoughts alone. Henry David Thoreau purity friendship In love and friendship the imagination is as much exercised as the heart; and if either is outraged the other will be estranged. It is commonly the imagination which is wounded first, rather than the heart,--it is so much the more sensitive. Henry David Thoreau imagination heart friendship A noble person confers no such gift as his whole confidence: none so exalts the giver and the receiver; it produces the truest gratitude. Perhaps it is only essential to friendship that some vital trust should have been reposed by the one in the other. I feel addressed and probed even to the remotest parts of my being when one nobly shows, even in trivial things, an implicit faith in me.... A threat or a curse may be forgotten, but this mild trust translates me. Henry David Thoreau gratitude trust friendship The richest gifts we can bestow are the least marketable. We hate the kindness which we understand. Henry David Thoreau hate kindness friendship Truth is his inspirer, and earnestness the polisher of his sentences. He could afford to lose his Sharp's rifles, while he retained his faculty of speech,--a Sharp's rifle of infinitely surer and longer range. Henry David Thoreau oratory rifles truth If there is nothing new on the earth, still the traveler always has a resource in the skies. They are constantly turning a new page to view. The wind sets the types on this blue ground, and the inquiring may always read a new truth there. Henry David Thoreau truth blue knowledge The whole body of what is now called moral or ethical truth existed in the golden age as abstract science. Or, if we prefer, we may say that the laws of Nature are the purest morality. Henry David Thoreau nature truth law Only lovers know the value and magnanimity of truth. Henry David Thoreau lovers truth knows There are sure to be two prescriptions diametrically opposite. Henry David Thoreau health truth opposites Here or nowhere is our heaven. Henry David Thoreau existence truth heaven This fond reiteration of the oldest expressions of truth by the latest posterity, content with slightly and religiously retouchingthe old material, is the most impressive proof of a common humanity. Henry David Thoreau common-humanity truth expression Stuff a cold and starve a cold are but two ways. They are the two practices, both always in full blast. Yet you must take the advice of the one school as if there was no other. Henry David Thoreau health truth school Your scheme must be the framework of the universe; all other schemes will soon be ruins. Henry David Thoreau ruins truth ideas When we come down into the distant village, visible from the mountain-top, the nobler inhabitants with whom we peopled it have departed, and left only vermin in its desolate streets. It is the imagination of poets which puts those brave speeches into the mouths of their heroes. Henry David Thoreau imagination truth hero It is not enough that we are truthful; we must cherish and carry out high purposes to be truthful about. Henry David Thoreau purpose truth integrity
