Such is the never-failing beauty and accuracy of language, the most perfect art in the world; the chisel of a thousand years retouches it. Henry David Thoreau More Quotes by Henry David Thoreau More Quotes From Henry David Thoreau I am no more lonely than a single mullein or dandelion in a pasture, or a bean leaf, or sorrel, or a horse-fly, or a bumblebee. I am no more lonely than the Mill Brook, or a weathercock, or the north star, or the south wind, or an April shower, or a January thaw, or the first spider in a new house. Henry David Thoreau horse stars lonely I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor. Henry David Thoreau success inspirational life The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. Henry David Thoreau success inspirational life Nothing can be more useful to a man than a determination not to be hurried. Henry David Thoreau determination time People die of fright and live of confidence. Henry David Thoreau fright fear people Haste makes waste, no less in life than in housekeeping. Henry David Thoreau haste-makes-waste leisure life However mean your life is, meet it and live it. Henry David Thoreau life-and-love inspirational-life mean Most are engaged in business the greater part of their lives, because the soul abhors a vacuum and they have not discovered any continuous employment for man's nobler faculties. Henry David Thoreau business men life As every season seems best to us in its turn, so the coming in of spring is like the creation of Cosmos out of Chaos and the realization of the Golden Age. Henry David Thoreau cosmos age spring Men must speak English who can write Sanskrit; they must speak a modern language who write, perchance, an ancient and universal one. Henry David Thoreau speak-english writing men He who is conversant with the supernal powers will not worship these inferior deities of the wind, waves, tide, and sunshine. Butwe would not disparage the importance of such calculations as we have described. They are truths in physics because they are true in ethics. Henry David Thoreau sunshine nature science We are not a religious people, but we are a nation of politicians. We do not care for the Bible, but we do care for the newspaper.At any meeting of politicianshow impertinent it would be to quote from the Bible! how pertinent to quote from a newspaper or from the Constitution! Henry David Thoreau religious people religion As for men, they will hardly fail one anywhere. I had more visitors while I lived in the woods than at any other period of my life; I mean that I had some. Henry David Thoreau solitude men mean To preserve wild animals implies generally the creation of a forest for them to dwell in or resort to. So it is with man. A hundred years ago they sold bark in our streets peeled from our own woods. In the very aspect of those primitive and rugged trees there was, methinks, a tanning principle which hardened and consolidated the fibres of men's thoughts. Ah! already I shudder for these comparatively degenerate days of my native village, when you cannot collect a load of bark of good thickness, and we no longer produce tar and turpentine. Henry David Thoreau animal men years Very few men can speak of Nature, for instance, with any truth. They overstep her modesty, somehow or other, and confer no favor.They do not speak a good word for her. Most cry better than they speak, and you can get more nature out of them by pinching than by addressing them. The surliness with which the woodchopper speaks of his woods, handling them as indifferently as his axe, is better than the mealy-mouthed enthusiasm of the lover of nature. Better that the primrose by the river's brim be a yellow primrose, and nothing more, than that it be something less. Henry David Thoreau nature rivers men We are ever dying to one world and being born into another. Henry David Thoreau dying death world For my part, I would rather look toward Rutland than Jerusalem. Rutland,--modern town,--land of ruts,--trivial and worn,--not toosacred,--with no holy sepulchre, but profane green fields and dusty roads, and opportunity to live as holy a life as you can, where the sacredness, if there is any, is all in yourself and not in the place. Henry David Thoreau land green-fields opportunity A temple, you know, was anciently "an open place without a roof," whose walls served merely to shut out the world and direct the mind toward heaven; but a modern meeting-house shuts out the heavens, while it crowds the world into still closer quarters. Henry David Thoreau wall house heaven If I wished to see a mountain or other scenery under the most favorable auspices, I would go to it in foul weather, so as to be there when it cleared up; we are then in the most suitable mood, and nature is most fresh and inspiring. There is no serenity so fair as that which is just established in a tearful eye. Henry David Thoreau serenity eye weather Events, circumstances, etc., have their origin in ourselves. They spring from seeds which we have sown. Henry David Thoreau etc events spring
