Quote

Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resigns his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward.

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
Ever
Degree
Firsts
Degrees
First
Conscience
Resigns
Must
Subjects
Legislator
Every
Citizens
Afterward
Men
Least
Legislators
Think
Moment
Disobedience
Thinking
Moments
Citizen

More quotes by Henry David Thoreau

Image
Friends are made for caring and sharing. Friends do not live in harmony merely, as some say, but in melody.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
I have lived some thirty years on this planet, and I have yet to hear the first syllable of valuable or even earnest advice from my seniors.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
The experience of every past moment but belies the faith of each present.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
Spring. March fans it, April christens it, and May puts on its jacket and trousers.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
The only fruit which even much living yields seems to be often only some trivial success,--the ability to do some slight thing better. We make conquest only of husks and shells for the most part,--at least apparently,--but sometimes these are cinnamon and spices, you know.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
We need the tonic of the wilderness, to wade sometimes in the marsh where the bitten and the meadow hen lurk, and hear the booming of the snipe to smell the whispering sedge where only some wilder and more solitary fowl builds her nest, and the mink crawls with its belly close to the ground.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
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 They appear but as the fashions of past days,--mere courtliness, knee-buckles and small- clothes, out of date.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
The philosopher's conception of things will, above all, be truer than other men's, and his philosophy will subordinate all the circumstances of life. To live like a philosopher is to live, not foolishly, like other men, but wisely and according to universal laws.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
Furniture! Thank God, I can sit and I can stand without the aid of a furniture warehouse.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
In the long run, men hit only what they aim at. Therefore, they had better aim at something high.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
A name pronounced is the recognition of the individual to whom it belongs. He who can pronounce my name aright, he can call me, and is entitled to my love and service.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
Even the best things are not equal to their fame.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
Every man is the builder of a temple, called his body, to the god he worships, after a style purely his own, nor can he get off by hammering marble instead. We are all sculptors and painters, and our material is our own flesh and blood and bones. Any nobleness begins at once to refine a man's features, any meanness or sensuality to imbrute them.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
When any real progress is made, we unlearned and learn anew what we thought we knew before.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
However mean your life is, meet it and live it.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
Live the life you've dreamed.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
Our molting season, like that of the fouls, must be a crisis in our lives.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
The most difficult thing to understand during conversation is silence.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
I repeat that in this sense the most splendid court in Christendom is provincial, having authority to consult about Transalpine interests only, and not the affairs of Rome. A prætor or proconsul would suffice to settle the questions which absorb the attention of the English Parliament and the American Congress.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
There is one thought for the field, another for the house. I would have my thoughts, like wild apples, to be food for walkers, and will not warrant them to be palatable if tasted in the house.
Henry David Thoreau