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 integrity responsibility
For a man to act himself, he must be perfectly free; otherwise he is in danger of losing all sense of responsibility or of self- respect.
responsibility marine men
What is wanted is men of principle, who recognize a higher law than the decision of the majority. The marines and the militia whose bodies were used lately were not men of sense nor of principle; in a high moral sense they were not men at all.
responsibility men soul-and-body
I would remind my countrymen, that they are to be men first, and Americans only at a late and convenient hour. No matter how valuable law may be to protect your property, even to keep soul and body together, if it do not keep you and humanity together.
responsibility purpose want
The chief want, in every state that I have been into, was a high and earnest purpose in its inhabitants.
responsibility successful independence
I am not responsible for the successful working of the machinery of society.
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.
compared fate man opinion private public rather thinks weak
Public opinion is a weak tyrant, compared with our private opinion - what a man thinks of himself, that is which determines, or rather indicates his fate
compared man opinion private public rather thinks tyrant weak
Public opinion is a weak tyrant compared with our own private opinion. What a man thinks of himself, that it is which determines, or rather indicates, his fate.
best books chance
Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them all
beware clothes require
Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes.