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
faith communication silence
We communicate like the burrows of foxes, in silence and darkness, under ground. We are undermined by faith and love.
beautiful faith bird
If we cannot sing of faith and triumph, we will sing our despair. We will be that kind of bird. There are day owls, and there arenight owls, and each is beautiful and even musical while about its business.
bible faith book
A healthy man, with steady employment, as wood-chopping at fifty cents a cord, and a camp in the woods, will not be a good subjectfor Christianity. The New Testament may be a choice book to him on some, but not on all or most of his days. He will rather go a-fishing in his leisure hours. The Apostles, though they were fishers too, were of the solemn race of sea-fishers, and never trolled for pickerel on inland streams.
happiness desert reserves
I do not know what right I have to so much happiness, but rather hold it in reserve till the time of my desert.
happiness animal deals
I am too easily contented with a slight and almost animal happiness. My happiness is a good deal like that of the woodchucks.
discipline relax littles
As we grow older, we live more coarsely, we relax a little in our disciplines, and, to some extent, cease to obey our finest instincts. But we should be fastidious to the extreme of sanity, disregarding the gibes of those who are more unfortunate than ourselves.
life growth decay
The constant abrasion and decay of our lives makes the soil of our future growth.
life wisdom men
One may almost doubt if the wisest man has learned anything of absolute value by living.
wisdom generosity liberality
With wisdom we shall learn liberality.
wisdom ignorance sloth
From exertion come wisdom and purity; from sloth ignorance and sensuality.
life wisdom
Is there any such thing as wisdom not applied to life?
wisdom reading solitude
After reading Howitt's account of the Australian gold-diggings one evening,... I asked myself why I might not be washing some golddaily, though it were only the finest particles,--why I might not sink a shaft down to the gold within me, and work that mine.... At any rate, I might pursue some path, however solitary and narrow and crooked, in which I could walk with love and reverence.
wise wisdom money
The community has no bribe that will tempt a wise man.
spiritual wisdom believe
Concord is just as idiotic as ever in relation to the spirits and their knockings. Most people here believe in a spiritual world ... in spirits which the very bullfrogs in our meadows would blackball. Their evil genius is seeing how low it can degrade them. The hooting of owls, the croaking of frogs, is celestial wisdom in comparison.