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 know a good woman who thinks that her son lost his life because he took to drinking water only. Henry David Thoreau drinking food son The earth I tread on is not a dead inert mass. It is a body, has a spirit; is organic and fluid to the influence of its spirit and to whatever particle of the spirit is in me. Henry David Thoreau body earth spirit Real power is measured by how much you can let things be. Henry David Thoreau real-power real However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names. It is not so bad as you are. It looks poorest when you are richest. The fault-finder will find faults even in paradise. Love your life, poor as it is. You may perhaps have some pleasant, thrilling, glorious hours, even in a poor-house. Henry David Thoreau names love-you mean We fritter away our energy and creativity . . . Henry David Thoreau thick creativity energy The aim of the laborer should be, not to get his living, to get "a good job," but to perform well a certain work; and, even in a pecuniary sense, it would be economy for a town to pay its laborers so well that they would not feel that they were working for low ends, as for a livelihood merely, but for scientific, or even moral ends. Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for love of it. Henry David Thoreau pay jobs men And so the seasons went rolling on into summer, as one rambles into higher and higher grass. Henry David Thoreau rolling summer grass There is ripe fruit over your head. Henry David Thoreau ripe-fruit fruit over-you What a fool he must be who thinks that his El Dorado is anywhere but where he lives. Henry David Thoreau fool home thinking It is remarkable how easily and insensibly we fall into a particular route, and make a beaten track for ourselves. Henry David Thoreau track order fall The life without men praise and regard as successful is but one kind. Why should we exaggerate any one kind at the expense of the others? Henry David Thoreau kind success men Solitude is not measured by the miles of space that intervene between a man and his fellows. Henry David Thoreau solitude space men If one doubts whether Grecian valor and patriotism are not a fiction of the poets, he may go to Athens and see still upon the walls of the temple of Minerva the circular marks made by the shields taken from the enemy in the Persian war, which were suspended there. We have not far to seek for living and unquestionable evidence. The very dust takes shape and confirms some story which we had read. Henry David Thoreau wall taken war There is no doubt that the loftiest written wisdom is either rhymed or in some way musically measured,--is, in form as well as substance, poetry; and a volume which should contain the condensed wisdom of mankind need not have one rhythmless line. Henry David Thoreau poetry doubt needs Some poems are for holidays only. They are polished and sweet, but it is the sweetness of sugar, and not such as toil gives to sour bread. The breath with which the poet utters his verse must be that by which he lives. Henry David Thoreau holiday sweet integrity If you would get money as a writer or lecturer, you must be popular, which is to go down perpendicularly.... You are paid for being something less than a man. The state does not commonly reward a genius any more wisely. Even the poet laureate would rather not have to celebrate the accidents of royalty. He must be bribed with a pipe of wine; and perhaps another poet is called away from his muse to gauge that very pipe. Henry David Thoreau wine poetry men The poet who walks by moonlight is conscious of a tide in his thought which is to be referred to lunar influence. Henry David Thoreau poetry moon inspirational Already nature is serving all those uses which science slowly derives on a much higher and grander scale to him that will be served by her. When the sunshine falls on the path of the poet, he enjoys all those pure benefits and pleasures which the arts slowly and partially realize from age to age. The winds which fan his cheek waft him the sum of that profit and happiness which their lagging inventions supply. Henry David Thoreau nature art fall The poet will maintain serenity in spite of all disappointments. He is expected to preserve an unconcerned and healthy outlook over the world, while he lives. Henry David Thoreau serenity poetry disappointment Exaggerated history is poetry, and truth referred to a new standard. Henry David Thoreau poetry truth history
