3,409 Quotes by Henry David Thoreau

It is true, I never assisted the sun materially in his rising, but doubt not, it was of the last importance only to be present at it.

True, there are architects so called in this country, and I have heard of one at least possessed with the idea of making architectural ornaments have a core of truth, a necessity, and hence a beauty, as if it were a revelation to him. All very well perhaps from his point of view, but only a little better than the common dilettantism.

What a contrast between the stern and desolate poetry of Ossian, and that of Chaucer, and even of Shakespeare and Milton, much more of Dryden, and Pope, and Gray! Our summer of English poetry, like the Greek and Latin before it, seems well advanced towards its fall, and laden with the fruit and foliage of the season, with bright autumnal tints, but soon the winter will scatter its myriad clustering and shading leaves, and leave only a few desolate and fibrous boughs to sustain the snow and rime, and creak in the blasts of age.

The commonest and cheapest sounds, as the barking of a dog, produce the same effect on fresh and healthy ears that the rarest music does. It depends on your appetite for sound. Just as a crust is sweeter to a healthy appetite than confectionery to a pampered or diseased one.

I found that they knew but little of the history of their race, and could be entertained by stories about their ancestors as readily as any way .

The botanist should make interest with the bees if he would know when the flowers open and when they close.

Poetry is the mysticism of mankind.

We hate the kindness which we understand.

I am still a learner, not a teacher, feeding somewhat omnivorously, browsing both stalk & leaves