Quote

It is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.

Henry David Thoreau

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Henry David Thoreau
Age: 44 †
Born: 1817
Born: July 12
Died: 1862
Died: May 6
Abolitionist
Author
Autobiographer
Diarist
Ecologist
Environmentalist
Essayist
Naturalist
Philosopher
Poet
Translator
Writer
birthplace of Henry David Thoreau
Thoreau
Henry D. Thoreau
Things
Desperation
Characteristic
Characteristics
Desperate
Intelligence
Wise
Wisdom
Business
Muskrats

More quotes by Henry David Thoreau

Image
Take long walks in stormy weather or through deep snows in the fields and woods, if you would keep your spirits up. Deal with brute nature. Be cold and hungry and weary.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
Heal yourselves, doctors by God I live.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
Life isn't about finding yourself it's about creating yourself. So live the life you imagined.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
Solitude is not measured by the miles of space that intervene between a man and his fellows. The really diligent student in one of the crowded hives of Cambridge college is as solitary as a dervis in the desert.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
It is never too late to give up our prejudices. No way of thinking or doing, however, ancient, can be trusted without proof. ... Old deeds for old people, and new deeds for new.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
A healthy man, indeed, is the complement of the seasons, and in winter, summer is in his heart.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
Water is a pioneer which the settler follows, taking advantage of its improvements.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
I look upon England today as an old gentleman who is travelling with a great deal of baggage, trumpery which has accumulated fromlong housekeeping, which he has not the courage to burn.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
Thank God men cannot fly, and lay waste the sky as well as the earth.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
Government never furthered any enterprise but by the alacrity with which it got out of its way.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
The chimney is to some extent an independent structure, standing on the ground, and rising through the house to the heavens evenafter the house is burned it still stands sometimes, and its importance and independence are apparent.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
As for the complex ways of living, I love them not, however much I practice them. In as many places as possible, I will get my feet down to the earth.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
It is only necessary to behold the least fact or phenomenon, however familiar, from a point a hair's breadth aside from our habitual path or routine, to be overcome, enchanted by its beauty and significance ... To perceive freshly, with fresh senses is to be inspired.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it yourself. Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
It makes no odds where a man goes or stays, if he is only about his business.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
Nature abhors a vacuum, and if I can only walk with sufficient carelessness I am sure to be filled.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
In order to die, you must first have lived.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
Every nail driven should be as another rivet in the machine of the universe, you carrying on the work.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
To a small man every greater is an exaggeration.
Henry David Thoreau