Quote

Society is commonly too cheap. We meet at very short intervals, not having had time to acquire any new value for each other. We meet at meals three times a day, and give each other a new taste of that old musty cheese that we are.

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
Time
Value
Cheese
Friends
Cheap
Society
Meals
Values
Acquire
Times
Friendship
Three
Meet
Musty
Give
Short
Intervals
Giving
Taste
Commonly

More quotes by Henry David Thoreau

Image
I have much to learn of the Indian, nothing of the missionary.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
Count your age with friends but not with years.
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
The gold-digger is the enemy of the honest laborer, whatever checks and compensations there may be. It is not enough to tell me that you worked hard to get your gold. So does the Devil work hard. The way of transgressors may be hard in many respects.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
There is more of good nature than of good sense at the bottom of most marriages.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
A simple woman down in Tyngsborough, at whose house I once stopped to get a draught of water, when I said, recognizing the bucket, that I had stopped there nine years before for the same purpose, asked if I was not a traveler, supposing that I had been traveling ever since, and had now come round again.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
Most men would feel shame if caught preparing with their own hands precisely such a dinner, whether of animal or vegetable food, as is every day prepared for them by others. Yet till this is otherwise we are not civilized, and, if gentlemen and ladies, are not true men and women. This certainly suggests what change is to be made.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
Most people dread finding out when they come to die that they have never really lived.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
There is no ill which may not be dissipated, like the dark, if you let in a stronger light upon it.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
If you indulge in long periods, you must be sure to have a snapper at the end.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
All things in this world must be seen with youthful, hopeful eyes.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
Don't spend your time in drilling soldiers, who may turn out hirelings after all, but give to undrilled peasantry a country to fight for.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
The violence of love is as much to be dreaded as that of hate.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
Our houses are such unwieldy property that we are often imprisoned rather than housed by them.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
You ask particularly after my health. I suppose that I have not many months to live but, of course, I know nothing about it. I may add that I am enjoying existence as much as ever, and regret nothing.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
Nature puts no question and answers none which we mortals ask. She has long ago taken her resolution.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
What a healthy out-of-door appetite it takes to relish the apple of life, the apple of the world, then!
Henry David Thoreau
Image
The strongest wind cannot stagger a Spirit it is a Spirit's breath. A just man's purpose cannot be split on any Grampus or material rock, but itself will split rocks till it succeeds.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
Love does not analyze its object.
Henry David Thoreau