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Amid a world of noisy, shallow actors it is noble to stand aside and say, 'I will simply be.

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
Actors
World
Amid
Noisy
Shallow
Aside
Noble
Simply
Stand

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That government is best which governs not at all and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have.
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Every man is the builder of a temple called his body.
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The oldest, wisest politician grows not more human so, but is merely a gray wharf rat at last.
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In short, I am convinced, both by faith and experience, that to maintain one's self on this earth is not a hardship but a pastime, if we will live simply and wisely as the pursuits of the simpler nations are still the sports of the more artificial.
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Let go of the past and live the future . . . Live the life you imagined.
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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.
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Love your life, poor as it is. You may perhaps have some pleasant, thrilling, glorious hours, even in a poor-house.
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The finest manners in the world are awkwardness and fatuity when contrasted with a finer intelligence. They appear but as the fashions of past days,--mere courtliness, knee-buckles and small- clothes, out of date.
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We cannot write well or truly but what we write with gusto.
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A broad margin of leisure is as beautiful in a man's life as in a book.
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The poet uses the results of science and philosophy, and generalizes their widest deductions.
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I learned from my two years' experience that it would cost incredibly little trouble to obtain one's necessary food that a man may use as simple a diet as the animals, and yet retain health and strength.
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Our science, so called, is always more barren and mixed with error than our sympathies.
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One who knew how to appropriate the true value of this world would be the poorest man in it. The poor rich man! all he has is whathe has bought.
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It is remarkable how long men will believe in the bottomlessness of a pond without taking the trouble to sound it.
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A farmer, a hunter, a soldier, a reporter, even a philosopher, may be daunted but nothing can deter a poet, for he is actuated by pure love. Who can predict his comings and goings? His business calls him out at all hours, even when doctors sleep.
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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.
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