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I can alter my life by altering my attitude. He who would have nothing to do with thorns must never attempt to gather flowers.

Henry David Thoreau

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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
Flowers
Flower
Attitude
Nothing
Altering
Must
Thorns
Never
Alter
Would
Gather
Life
Attempt

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Our circumstances answer to our expectations and the demand of our natures.
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The most attractive sentences are, perhaps, not the wisest, but the surest and roundest. They are spoken firmly and conclusively,as if the speaker had a right to know what he says, and if not wise, they have at least been well learned.
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The schools begin with what they call the elements, and where do they end?
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It takes two to speak the truth: one to speak, and another to hear.
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How can you expect the birds to sing when their groves are cut down?
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Do not engage to find things as you think they are.
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The researcher is more memorable than the researched.
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To say that God has given a man many and great talents frequently means that he has brought his heavens down within reach of his hands.
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Morning brings back the heroic ages.
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The greatest gains and values are farthest from being appreciated. We easily come to doubt if they exist. We soon forget them. They are the highest reality.
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I cannot easily buy a blank-book to write thoughts in they are commonly ruled for dollars and cents.
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The most attractive sentences are not perhaps the wisest, but the surest and soundest.
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Go not to the object let the object come to you.
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I had three pieces of limestone on my desk, but I was terrified to find that they required to be dusted daily, when the furniture of my mind was all undusted still, and threw them out the window in disgust.
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In the religion of all nations a purity is hinted at, which, I fear, men never attain to.
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Where there is not discernment, the behavior even of the purest soul may in effect amount to coarseness.
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We waded so gently and reverently, or we pulled together so smoothly, that the fishes of thought were not scared from the stream, nor feared any angler on the bank, but came and went grandly, like the clouds which came and went on the western sky, and the mother-o'-pearl flocks which sometimes form and dissolve there.
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Methinks I am never quite committed, never wholly the creature of my moods, but always to some extent their critic. My only integral experience is in my vision. I see, perchance, with more integrity than I feel.
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