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
grateful thanksgiving
I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual.
above advice aim good morality simply
Aim above morality. Be not simply good, be good for something.
apple desperate far haste hears however man mature measured music pace perhaps purpose soon step tree
Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed, and in such desperate enterprises? If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured and far away. It is not important that he should mature as soon as an apple tree or an oak.
born failure men
Men are born to succeed, not to fail.
require
I say, beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes.
exaggerate expense life men praise regard
The life which men praise and regard as successful is but one kind. Why should we exaggerate any one kind at the expense of the others?
branches evil striking thousand
There are a thousand at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.
canvas imagination
This world is but a canvas to our imaginations.
according love merely subtle wisdom
To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts; but so to love wisdom as to live according to its dictates.
constant senses suffer
I have the habit of attention to such excess, that my senses get no rest - but suffer from a constant strain.
either hear leaves mouth refreshing taken
Every day or two, I strolled to the village to hear some of the gossip which is incessantly going on there, circulating either from mouth to mouth, or from newspaper to newspaper, and which, taken in homeopathic doses, was really as refreshing in its way as the rustle of leaves and the peeping of frogs.
good
Be not simply good - be good for something.
life
Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life so.
agent break government injustice life requires stop
If an injustice requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter-friction to stop the government machine.