3,409 Quotes by Henry David Thoreau

As in geology, so in social institutions, we may discover the causes of all past changes in the present invariable order of society.

He who receives an injury is to some extent an accomplice of the wrong-doer.

I do not wish to be any more busy with my hands than is necessary.

There is an orientalism in the most restless pioneer, and the farthest west is but the farthest east.

I have lived some thirty-odd years on this planet, and I have yet to hear the first syllable of valuable or even earnest advice from my seniors.

There is such a thing as caste, even in the West; but it is comparatively faint; it is conservatism here. It says, forsake not your calling, outrage no institution, use no violence, rend no bonds; the State is thy parent. Its virtue or manhood is wholly filial.

It appears to be a law that you cannot have a deep sympathy with both man and nature.

Many men walk by day; few walk by night. It is a different season.

We are sometimes made aware of a kindness long passed, and realize that there have been times when our friends' thoughts of us were of so pure and lofty a character that they passed over us like the winds of heaven unnoticed; when they treated us not as what we were, but as what we aspired to be.