Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreauwas an American essayist, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, and historian. A leading transcendentalist, Thoreau is best known for his book Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay Resistance to Civil Government, an argument for disobedience to an unjust state...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionAuthor
Date of Birth12 July 1817
CountryUnited States of America
abroad among companion found lonely man men stay thinking
I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude. We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers. A man thinking or working is always alone, let him be where he will.
bottom current detect divine drink eternity god himself indeed lapse moment occasions places present sandy shallow stream thin time true
In eternity there is indeed something true and sublime. But all these times and places and occasions are now and here. God himself culminates in the present moment and will never be more divine in the lapse of the ages. Time is but a stream I go a-fishing in. I drink at it, but when I drink I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. Its thin current slides away but eternity remains.
built castles dreams work
If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost. There is where they should be. Now put foundations under them.
brother child debts father free leave paid ready settled wife
If you are ready to leave father and mother, and brother and sister, and wife and child and friends, and never see them again, - if you have paid your debts and made your will, and settled all your affairs, and are a free man, then you are ready for
expect harvest seed thoughts-and-thinking time
How can they expect a harvest of thought who have not had the seed time of character.
educate experiment learn mathematics minds trying youths
How could youths better learn to live than by once trying the experiment of living? Methinks this would educate their minds as much as mathematics
love-you love-your-life poor
Love your life, poor as it is.
writing
I cannot easily buy a blank-book to write thoughts in; they are commonly ruled for dollars and cents.
world infinite
This world is a place of business. What an infinite bustle!
men parcel
I learned to regard man as an inhabitant, or a part and parcel of nature, rather than a member of society.
To be in company, even with the best, is soon wearisome and dissipating.
dream night sabbath
I am awaked almost every night by the panting of the locomotive. It interrupts my dreams. There is no sabbath.
men
Men have come to such a pass that they frequently starve, not for want of necessaries, but for want of luxuries.
simple men animal
I learned from my two years' experience that it would cost incredibly little trouble to obtain one's necessary food; that a man may use as simple a diet as the animals, and yet retain health and strength.