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
men common-sense perception
Why level downward to our dullest perception always, and praise that as common sense? The commonest sense is the sense of men asleep, which they express by snoring.
dying world birth
We are ever dying to one world and being born into another.
healing body awe
I stand in awe of my body.
wine july yellow
The thinnest yellow light of November is more warming and exhilarating than any wine they tell of. The mite which November contributes becomes equal in value to the bounty of July.
men done acorns
As naturally as the oak bears an acorn and the vine a gourd, man bears a poem, either spoken or done.
blood flesh bones
We are all sculptors and painters, and our material is our own flesh and blood and bone.
fall wings track
Let us spend one day as deliberately as Nature, and not be thrown off the track by every nutshell and mosquito's wing that falls on the rails.
sweet cake able
You must love the crust of the earth on which you dwell more than the sweet crust of any bread or cake. You must be able to extract nutriment out of a sand-heap. You must have so good an appetite as this, else you will live in vain
beautiful dry grass
The dry grasses are not dead for me. A beautiful form has as much life at one season as another.
hell curious feels
If there is any hell more unprincipled than our rulers, and we, the ruled, I feel curious to see it.
simplicity contentment
Let your capital be simplicity and contentment.
self looks backwards
It is as hard to see one's self as to look backwards without turning around.
interesting people lost
The only people who ever get anyplace interesting are the people who get lost.
heart winter cottages
In winter we lead a more inward life. Our hearts are warm and cheery, like cottages under drifts...