Explore Quotes by Henry David Thoreau

It is easier to sail many thousand miles through cold and storm and cannibals, ina government ship, with five hundred men and boys to assist one, than it is to explore the private sea, the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean of one's being alone.

We perceive and are affected by changes too subtle to be described.

I stand in awe of my body.

As the skies appear to a man, so is his mind. Some see only clouds there; some, prodigies and portents; some rarely look up at all; their heads, like the brutes,' are directed toward Earth. Some behold there serenity, purity, beauty ineffable. The world runs to see the panorama, when there is a panorama in the sky which few go to see.

The thinnest yellow light of November is more warming and exhilarating than any wine they tell of. The mite which November contributes becomes equal in value to the bounty of July.

Even the utmost good-will and harmony and practical kindness are not sufficient for Friendship, for Friends do not live in harmony merely, as some say, but in melody. We do not wish for Friends to feed and clothe our bodies-neighbors are kind enough for that-but to do the like office to our spirits.

Before the end of December, generally, they experience their first thawing. Those which a month ago were sour, crabbed, and quite unpalatable to the civilized taste, such at least as were frozen while sound, let a warmer sun come to thaw them, for they are extremely sensitive to its rays, are found to be filled with a rich, sweet cider, better than any bottled cider that I know of, and with which I am better acquainted than with wine. All apples are good in this state, and your jaws are the cider-press.

To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.

It is not enough to be a hardworking person. Equally important is the job you are working at.

The world rests on principles.

How important is a constant intercourse with nature and the contemplation of natural phenomena to the preservation of moral and intellectual health!

As naturally as the oak bears an acorn and the vine a gourd, man bears a poem, either spoken or done.

We are all sculptors and painters, and our material is our own flesh and blood and bone.

How can he remember well his ignorance - which his growth requires - who has so often to use his knowledge?

When a man truly commits, the universe will conspire to assure his success.

We can never have enough of nature. We must be refreshed by the sight of inexhaustible vigor, vast and titanic features, the sea-coast with its wrecks, the wilderness with its living and its decaying trees, the thunder-cloud, and the rain.

It is a great art to saunter !

Not till we are completely lost, or turned round, do we appreciate the vastness and strangeness of Nature.

Let us spend one day as deliberately as Nature, and not be thrown off the track by every nutshell and mosquito's wing that falls on the rails.

The fire is the main comfort of the camp, whether in summer or winter

Have no mean hours, but be grateful for every hour, and accept what it brings. The reality will make any sincere record respectable.