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I begin to see an object when I cease to understand it.

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
Seeing
Understand
Nature
Awe
Cease
Object
Begin
Objects
Vision

More quotes by Henry David Thoreau

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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.
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The universe is wider than our views of it.
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Glances of true beauty can be seen in the faces of those who live in true meekness.
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Both place and time were changed, and I dwelt nearer to those parts of the universe and to those eras in history which had most attracted me.
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Let go of the past and live the future . . . Live the life you imagined.
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It is the man determines what is said, not the words.
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In literature it is only the wild that attracts us.
Henry David Thoreau
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The virtue of making two blades of grass grow where only one grew before does not begin to be superhuman.
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For eighteen hundred years, though perchance I have no right to say it, the New Testament has been written yet where is the legislator who has wisdom and practical talent enough to avail himself of the light which it sheds on the science of legislation?
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The greatest tragedy in life is to spend your whole life fishing only to discover it was never fish that you were after.
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We loiter in winter while it is already spring.
Henry David Thoreau
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Since most of us spend our lives doing ordinary tasks, the most important thing is to carry them out extraordinarily well.
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I once found a kernel of corn in the middle of a deep wood by Walden, tucked in behind a lichen on a pine, about as high as my head, either by a crow or a squirrel. It was a mile at least from any corn-field.
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A temple, you know, was anciently an open place without a roof, whose walls served merely to shut out the world and direct the mind toward heaven but a modern meeting-house shuts out the heavens, while it crowds the world into still closer quarters.
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The really efficient laborer will be found not to crowd his day with work, but will saunter to his task surrounded by a wide halo of ease and leisure.
Henry David Thoreau
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Far travel, very far travel, or travail, comes near to the worth of staying at home.
Henry David Thoreau
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True friendship can afford true knowledge. It does not depend on darkness and ignorance.
Henry David Thoreau
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All the moral laws are readily translated into natural philosophy, for often we have only to restore the primitive meaning of thewords by which they are expressed, or to attend to their literal instead of their metaphorical sense. They are already supernatural philosophy.
Henry David Thoreau
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For eighteen hundred years, though perchance I have no right to say it, the New Testament has been written yet where is the legislator who has wisdom and practical talent enough to avail himself of the light which it sheds on the science of legislation?
Henry David Thoreau
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If one hesitates in his path, let him not proceed. Let him respect his doubts, for doubts, too, may have some divinity in them.
Henry David Thoreau