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
book style dozen
Translate a book a dozen times from one language to another, and what becomes of its style? Most books would be worn out and disappear in this ordeal. The pen which wrote it is soon destroyed, but the poem survives.
believe rude wish
I have made a very rude translation of the Seven against Thebes, and Pindar too I have looked at, and wish he was better worth translating. I believe even the best things are not equal to their fame. Perhaps it would be better to translate fame itself,--or is not that what the poets themselves do? However, I have not done with Pindar yet.
skins leopards spots
The Ethiopian cannot change his skin nor the leopard his spots.
ocean giving desert
My spirits infallibly rise in proportion to the outward dreariness. Give me the ocean, the desert, or the wilderness!
cat home woods
The most domestic cat, which has lain on a rug all her days, appears quite at home in the woods, and, by her sly and stealthy behavior, proves herself more native there than the regular inhabitants.
swamps wilderness primitive
The most primitive places left with us are the swamps, where the spruce still grows shaggy with usnea.
confidence respect doubt
If one hesitates in his path, let him not proceed. Let him respect his doubts, for doubts, too, may have some divinity in them.
doubt ifs
Do not entertain doubts if they are not agreeable to you.
men dying john-brown
Of all the men who were said to be my contemporaries, it seemed to me that John Brown was the only one who had not died.
wine juice singers
Our poets have sung of wine, the product of a foreign plant which commonly they never saw, as if our own plants had no juice in them more than the singers.
time car railroads
The startings and arrivals of the cars are now the epochs in the village day.
time criticism may
As they say in geology, time never fails, there is always enough of it, so I may say, criticism never fails.
lying father fall
Nature herself has not provided the most graceful end for her creatures. What becomes of all these birds that people the air and forest for our solacement? The sparrow seems always chipper, never infirm. We do not see their bodies lie about. Yet there is a tragedy at the end of each one of their lives. They must perish miserably; not one of them is translated. True, "not a sparrow falleth to the ground without our Heavenly Father's knowledge," but they do fall, nevertheless.
education children mind
I could not undertake to form a nucleus of an institution for the development of infant minds, where none already existed. It would be too cruel.