The bad are frequently good enough to let you see how bad they are, but the good as frequently endeavor to get between you and themselves. Henry David Thoreau More Quotes by Henry David Thoreau More Quotes From Henry David Thoreau As far back as I can remember I have unconsciously referred to the experiences of a previous state of existence. Henry David Thoreau reincarnation states remember Truth is always paradoxical. Henry David Thoreau paradoxical truth-is truth I lived in Judea eighteen hundred years ago, but I never knew that there was such a one as Christ among my contemporaries. Henry David Thoreau reincarnation years christ But government in which the majority rule in all cases can not be based on justice, even as far as men understand it. Henry David Thoreau majority-rule justice men Trade and commerce, if they were not made of Indian rubber, would never manage to bounce over the obstacles which legislators are continually putting in their way. Henry David Thoreau political government philosophy Most of the luxuries and many of the so-called comforts of life are not only not indispensable but positive hindrances to our progress. Our life is frittered away by detail. I say let your affairs be as two or three, not a hundred or a thousand. And keep your accounts on your thumb nail. Henry David Thoreau luxury progress two Removing the weeds, putting fresh soil about the bean stems, and encouraging this weed which I had sown, making the yellow soil express its summer thought in bean leaves and blossoms rather than in wormwood and piper and millet grass, making the earth say beans instead of grass, - this was my daily work. Henry David Thoreau weed summer work A man has not seen a thing who has not felt it. Henry David Thoreau seeing felt men One cannot too soon forget his errors and misdemeanors for to dwell long upon them is to add to the offense, and repentance and sorrow can only be displaced by somewhat better, and which is as free and original as if they had not been. Henry David Thoreau errors sorrow long Give me the old familiar world, post-office and all, with this ever new self, with this infinite expectation and faith, which does not know when it is beaten. Henry David Thoreau inspiration self faith The improved means to the unimproved end. Henry David Thoreau environment ends mean Don't be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life so. Henry David Thoreau ethics-and-morals life cheating Our whole life is startlingly moral. There is never an instant's truce between virtue and vice. Henry David Thoreau morality vices life Still we live meanly like ants, though the fable tells us we were long ago changed into men. Henry David Thoreau long-ago men life We are armed with language adequate to describe each leaf of the filed, but not to describe human character. Henry David Thoreau adequate language character Wherever a man goes, men will pursue him and paw him with their dirty institutions, and, if they can, constrain him to belong to their desperate odd-fellow society. Henry David Thoreau atheism men dirty The way in which men cling to old institutions after the life has departed out of them, and out of themselves, reminds me of those monkeys which cling by their tails - aye, whose tails contract about the limbs, even the dead limbs, of the forest, and they hang suspended beyond the hunter's reach long after they are dead. It is of no use to argue with such men. They have not an apprehensive intellect, but merely, as it were a prehensile tail. Henry David Thoreau departed men long The purity men love is like the mists which envelope the earth, and not like the azure ether beyond. Henry David Thoreau earth love men A name pronounced is the recognition of the individual to whom it belongs. He who can pronounce my name aright, he can call me, and is entitled to my love and service. Henry David Thoreau individuality names love We have not so good a right to hate any as our Friend. Henry David Thoreau hate
