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
freedom children liberty
We are a nation of politicians, concerned about the outmost defenses only of freedom. It is our children's children who may perchance be really free.
writing liberty narrative
We can never safely exceed the actual facts in our narratives. Of pure invention, such as some suppose, there is no instance. To write a true work of fiction even is only to take leisure and liberty to describe some things more exactly as they are.
children men liberty
If I deny the authority of the State when it presents my tax bill, it will soon take and waste all my property, and so harass me and my children without end. This is hard, this makes it impossible for a man to live honestly, and at the same time comfortably, in outward respects.
government liberty authority
The authority of government . . . can have no pure right over my person and property but what I concede to it.
men years liberty
If a thousand men were not to pay their tax-bills this year, that would ... [be] the definition of a peaceable revolution, if any such is possible.
men liberty world
When will the world learn that a million men are of no importance compared with one man?
law liberty unjust
Anyone in a free society where the laws are unjust has an obligation to break the law.
government liberty libertarian
Government never furthered any enterprise but by the alacrity with which it got out of its way.
i-hate-you independence liberty
All good things are wild and free.
american-author fine house planet tolerable
What's the use of a fine house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on?
man meet pleased wild wish
I should be pleased to meet man in the woods. I wish he were to be encountered like wild caribous and moose.
great mankind poets works
The works of the great poets have never yet been read by mankind, for only great poets can read them
almost far staying travel worth
Far travel, very far travel, or travail, comes to almost the worth of staying home.
Say what you have to say, not what you ought.