Quote

Yet some can be patriotic who have no self-respect, and sacrifice the greater to the less. They love the soil which makes their graves, but have no sympathy with the spirit which may still animate their clay. Patriotism is a maggot in their heads.

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
Still
Soil
Maggots
May
Sacrifice
Animate
Self
Respect
Clay
Love
Greater
Patriotic
Less
Patriotism
Makes
Sympathy
Spirit
Heads
Stills
Graves
Maggot

More quotes by Henry David Thoreau

Image
Music is the sound of the universal laws promulgated. It is the only assured tone. There are in it such strains as far surpass anyman's faith in the loftiness of his destiny. Things are to be learned which it will be worth the while to learn.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
There are sure to be two prescriptions diametrically opposite.
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
Our village life would stagnate if it were not for the unexplored forests and meadows which surround it.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
Man is an animal who more than any other can adapt himself to all climates and circumstances.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
I do not see why the schoolmaster should be taxed to support the priest, and not the priest the schoolmaster.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
Wealth can't buy heath, but heath can buy wealth.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
As all curves have reference to their centres or foci, so all beauty of character has reference to the soul, and is a graceful gesture of recognition or waving of the body toward it.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
The birds I heard today, which, fortunately, did not come within the scope of my science, sang as freshly as if it had been the first morning of creation.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
Work your vein till it is exhausted, or conducts you to a broader one.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
I have never met with a friend who furnished me sea-room. I have only tacked a few times and come to anchor - not sailed - made no voyage, carried no venture.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
Ice is an interesting subject for contemplation. They told me that they had some in the ice-houses at Fresh Pond five years old which was as good as ever. Why is it that a bucket of water soon becomes putrid, but frozen remains sweet forever? It is commonly said that this is the difference between the affections and the intellect.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
A journal, is a book that shall contain a record of all your joy, your ecstasy, what you are grateful for.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
My life has been the poem I would have writ, But I could not both live and utter it.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
Despair and postponement are cowardice and defeat. Men were born to succeed, not to fail.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
There is a chasm between knowledge and ignorance which the arches of science can never span.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
It is an interesting question how far men would retain their relative rank if they were divested of their clothes.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
The young pines springing up in the corn-fields from year to year are to me a refreshing fact.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
The poet is no tender slip of fairy stock, who requires peculiar institutions and edicts for his defense, but the toughest son ofearth and of Heaven, and by his greater strength and endurance his fainting companions will recognize the God in him. It is the worshipers of beauty, after all, who have done the real pioneer work of the world.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
All men are children, and of one family. The same tale sends them all to bed, and wakes them in the morning.
Henry David Thoreau