3,409 Quotes by Henry David Thoreau

Nature doth thus kindly heal every wound. By the mediation of a thousand little mosses and fungi, the most unsightly objects become radiant of beauty. There seem to be two sides of this world, presented us at different times, as we see things in growth or dissolution, in life or death. And seen with the eye of the poet, as God sees them, all things are alive and beautiful.

I do not know where to find in any literature, whether ancient or modern, any adequate account of that Nature with which I am acquainted.

Much is published, but little printed.

It is not enough to be a hardworking person. Equally important is the job you are working at.

Homeliness is almost as great a merit in a book as in a house, if the reader would abide there. It is next to beauty, and a very high art.

I do not see why the schoolmaster should be taxed to support the priest, and not the priest the schoolmaster.

Our science, so called, is always more barren and mixed with error than our sympathies.

The imagination never forgets; it is a re-membering. It is not foundationless, but most reasonable, and it alone uses all the knowledge of the intellect.

Governments show thus how successfully men can be imposed on, even impose on themselves, for their own advantage.