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
What is religion? That which is never spoken.
philosophy particles whole-truth
Poetry implies the whole truth, philosophy expresses only a particle of it.
wind firsts energy
First, there is the power of the Wind, constantly exerted over the globe... Here is an almost incalculable power at our disposal, yet how trifling the use we make of it.
time determination
Nothing can be more useful to you than a determination not to be hurried.
nature travel hands
Nature is full of genius, full of the divinity; so that not a snowflake escapes its fashioning hand.
change workout thoughtful
Nay, be a Columbus to whole new continents and worlds within you, opening new channels, not of trade, but of thought.
inspirational giving-up learning
It is never too late to give up our prejudices.
art men perfect
Art is not tame, and Nature is not wild, in the ordinary sense. A perfect work of man's art would also be wild or natural in a good sense.
reading acting hints
What I began by reading, I must finish by acting.
past order may
As in geology, so in social institutions, we may discover the causes of all past changes in the present invariable order of society.
silence speech conversation
The most difficult thing to understand during conversation is silence.
shoes optimism anxiety
If a person lost would conclude that after all he is not lost, he is not beside himself, but standing in his own old shoes on thevery spot where he is, and that for the time being he will live there; but the places that have known him, they are lost,--how much anxiety and danger would vanish.
writing long needs
Not that the story need be long, but it will take a long while to make it short.
eye weather serenity
If I wished to see a mountain or other scenery under the most favorable auspices, I would go to it in foul weather, so as to be there when it cleared up; we are then in the most suitable mood, and nature is most fresh and inspiring. There is no serenity so fair as that which is just established in a tearful eye.