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 It is the stars as not yet known to science that I would know, the stars which the lonely traveler knows. Henry David Thoreau traveler stars lonely Beware of any profession for which you must buy new clothes. Henry David Thoreau new-clothes profession clothes Let go of the past and live the future . . . Live the life you imagined. Henry David Thoreau live-life letting-go past That man is richest who's pleasure are cheapest. Henry David Thoreau pleasure men There is not one kind of food for all men. You must and you will feed those faculties which you exercise. The laborer whose body is weary does not require the same food with the scholar whose brain is weary. Henry David Thoreau exercise food men You must ascend a mountain to learn your relation to matter, and so to your own body, for it is at home there, though you are not. Henry David Thoreau mountain body home What is man but a mass of thawing clay? Henry David Thoreau clay body men Who knows what the human body would expand and flow out to under a more genial heaven? Henry David Thoreau flow body heaven If you would feel the full force of a tempest, take up your residence on the top of Mount Washington, or at the Highland Light, inTruro. Henry David Thoreau tempest force light In the planting of the seeds of most trees, the best gardeners do no more than follow Nature, though they may not know it. Henry David Thoreau gardener may tree The Musketaquid, or Grass-ground River, though probably as old as the Nile or Euphrates, did not begin to have a place in civilized history until the fame of its grassy meadows and fish attracted settlers out of England in 1635, when it received the other but kindred name of CONCORD from the first plantation on its banks, which appears to have commenced in a spirit of peace and harmony. It will be Grass-ground River as long as grass grows and water runs here; it will be Concord River only while men lead peacable lives on its banks. Henry David Thoreau names running men I will not allow mere names to make distinctions for me, but still see men in herds for all them. Henry David Thoreau herds names men At present our only true names are nicknames. Henry David Thoreau nicknames names I have hardly begun to live on Staten Island yet; but, like the man who, when forbidden to tread on English ground, carried Scottish ground in his boots, I carry Concord ground in my boots and in my hat,--and am I not made of Concord dust? I cannot realize that it is the roar of the sea I hear now, and not the wind in Walden woods. I find more of Concord, after all, in the prospect of the sea, beyond Sandy Hook, than in the fields and woods. Henry David Thoreau dust islands men I am not responsible for the successful working of the machinery of society. Henry David Thoreau independence successful responsibility The frontiers are not east or west, north or south; but wherever a man fronts a fact, though that fact be a neighbor, there is anunsettled wilderness between him and Canada, between him and the setting sun, or, farther still, between him and it. Let him build himself a log house with the bark on where he is, fronting IT, and wage there an Old French war for seven or seventy years, with Indians and Rangers, or whatever else may come between him and the reality, and save his scalp if he can. Henry David Thoreau men war reality In sane moments we regard only the facts, the case that is. Henry David Thoreau sanity moments facts The heroes and discoverers have found true more than was previously believed, only when they were expecting and dreaming of something more than their contemporaries dreamed of, or even themselves discovered, that is, when they were in a frame of mind fitted to behold the truth. Referred to the world's standard, they are always insane. Even savages have indirectly surmised as much. Henry David Thoreau hero dream discovery And pray what more can a reasonable man desire, in peaceful times, in ordinary noons, than a sufficient number of ears of green sweet corn boiled, with the addition of salt? Henry David Thoreau numbers sweet men There is a certain class of unbelievers who sometimes ask me such questions as, if I think that I can live on vegetable food alone; and to strike at the root of the matter at once,--for the root is faith,--I am accustomed to answer such, that I can live on board nails. If they cannot understand that, they cannot understand much that I have to say. Henry David Thoreau roots class thinking
