3,409 Quotes by Henry David Thoreau

I stand in awe of my body.

Nations are possessed with an insane ambition to perpetuate the memory of themselves by the amount of hammered stone they leave. What if equal pains were taken to smooth and polish their manners?

Having reached the term of his natural life"; Mwould it not be truer to say, Having reached the term of his unnatural life?

The slight reproach to which the virtue of patriotism is commonly liable, the noble are most likely to incur.

There is no ill which may not be dissipated, like the dark, if you let in a stronger light upon it.

Long enough I had heard of irrelevant things; now at length I was glad to make acquaintance with the light that dwells in rotten wood. Where is all your knowledge gone to? It evaporates completely, for it has no depth.

Being is the great explainer.

What is most striking in the Maine wilderness is the continuousness of the forest, with fewer open intervals or glades than you had imagined. Except the few burnt lands, the narrow intervals on the rivers, the bare tops of the high mountains, and the lakes and streams, the forest is uninterrupted.

I believe that the mind can be permanently profaned by the habit of attending to trivial things, so that all our thoughts shall be tinged with triviality.