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
friend takes
A friend is one who takes me for what I am.
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.
I would not have any one adopt my mode of living on any account...
home soul poor
How many a poor immortal soul I have met well-nigh crushed and smothered under its load, creeping down the road of life, pushing before it [an oversized home].
men complaining speak
I do not speak to those who are well employed, in whatever circumstances, and they know whether they are well employed or not; but mainly to the mass of men who are discontented, and idly complaining of the hardness of their lot or of the times, when they might improve them.
greek chinese philosopher
The ancient philosophers, Chinese, Hindu, Persian, and Greek, were a class than which none has been poorer in outward riches, none so rich inward.
ocean solitude world
I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude. [It allows you to] be the Mungo Park, the Lewis and Clark of your own streams and oceans; [to] explore your own higher latitudes; [to] be a Columbus to whole new continents and worlds within you, opening new channels, not of trade, but of thought.