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 outward is only the outside of that which is within. Men are not concealed under habits, but are revealed by them; they are their true clothes. Henry David Thoreau clothes character men Show me a man who feels bitterly toward John Brown, and let me hear what noble verse he can repeat. He'll be as dumb as if his lips were stone. Henry David Thoreau dumb character men White Pond and Walden are great crystals on the surface of the earth, Lakes of Light.... They are too pure to have a market value;they contain no muck. How much more beautiful than our lives, how much more transparent than our characters are they! We never learned meanness of them. Henry David Thoreau lakes beautiful character Every wild apple shrub excites our expectation thus, somewhat as every wild child. It is, perhaps, a prince in disguise. What a lesson to man! So are human beings, referred to the highest standard, the celestial fruit which they suggest and aspire to bear, browsed on by fate; and only the most persistent and strongest genius defends itself and prevails, sends a tender scion upward at last, and drops its perfect fruit on the ungrateful earth. Poets and philosophers and statesmen thus spring up in the country pastures, and outlast the hosts of unoriginal men. Henry David Thoreau spring country children Time hides no treasures; we want not its then, but its now. Henry David Thoreau treasure want time I live in the angle of a leaden wall, into whose composition was poured a little alloy of bell-metal. Often, in the repose of my mid-day, there reaches my ears a confused tintinnabulum from without. It is the noise of my contemporaries. Henry David Thoreau confused wall ears I could not undertake to form a nucleus of an institution for the development of infant minds, where none already existed. It would be too cruel. Henry David Thoreau mind education children Nature herself has not provided the most graceful end for her creatures. What becomes of all these birds that people the air and forest for our solacement? The sparrow seems always chipper, never infirm. We do not see their bodies lie about. Yet there is a tragedy at the end of each one of their lives. They must perish miserably; not one of them is translated. True, "not a sparrow falleth to the ground without our Heavenly Father's knowledge," but they do fall, nevertheless. Henry David Thoreau father lying fall As they say in geology, time never fails, there is always enough of it, so I may say, criticism never fails. Henry David Thoreau criticism may time The startings and arrivals of the cars are now the epochs in the village day. Henry David Thoreau railroads car time Our poets have sung of wine, the product of a foreign plant which commonly they never saw, as if our own plants had no juice in them more than the singers. Henry David Thoreau juice singers wine Of all the men who were said to be my contemporaries, it seemed to me that John Brown was the only one who had not died. Henry David Thoreau john-brown dying men Do not entertain doubts if they are not agreeable to you. Henry David Thoreau ifs doubt The most primitive places left with us are the swamps, where the spruce still grows shaggy with usnea. Henry David Thoreau swamps primitive wilderness The most domestic cat, which has lain on a rug all her days, appears quite at home in the woods, and, by her sly and stealthy behavior, proves herself more native there than the regular inhabitants. Henry David Thoreau woods cat home My spirits infallibly rise in proportion to the outward dreariness. Give me the ocean, the desert, or the wilderness! Henry David Thoreau desert ocean giving I have made a very rude translation of the Seven against Thebes, and Pindar too I have looked at, and wish he was better worth translating. I believe even the best things are not equal to their fame. Perhaps it would be better to translate fame itself,--or is not that what the poets themselves do? However, I have not done with Pindar yet. Henry David Thoreau rude wish believe Translate a book a dozen times from one language to another, and what becomes of its style? Most books would be worn out and disappear in this ordeal. The pen which wrote it is soon destroyed, but the poem survives. Henry David Thoreau style would-be book I am not sure but I should betake myself in extremities to the liberal divinities of Greece, rather than to my country's God. Jehovah, though with us he has acquired new attributes, is more absolute and unapproachable, but hardly more divine, than Jove. He is not so much of a gentleman, not so gracious and catholic, he does not exert so intimate and genial an influence on nature, as many a god of the Greeks. Henry David Thoreau catholic god country We are independent of the change we detect. The longer the lever, the less perceptible its motion. It is the slowest pulsation which is the most vital. The hero then will know how to wait, as well as to make haste. All good abides with him who waiteth wisely; we shall sooner overtake the dawn by remaining here than by hurrying over the hills of the west. Henry David Thoreau change hero patience
