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I fear chiefly lest my expression may not be extravagant enough, may not wander far enough beyond the narrow limit of my daily experience, so as to be adequate to the truth of which I have been convinced.

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
Expression
Adequate
Fear
Narrow
Experience
Limit
Truth
Wander
May
Daily
Enough
Convinced
Chiefly
Limits
Extravagant
Beyond
Lest

More quotes by Henry David Thoreau

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Silence is the universal refuge, the sequel to all dull discourses and all foolish acts, a balm to our every chagrin, as welcome after satiety as after disappointment
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Men seem anxious to accomplish an orderly retreat through the centuries, earnestly rebuilding the works behind them, as they are battered down by the encroachments of time but while they loiter, they and their works both fall prey to the arch enemy.
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Some have asked if the stock of men could not be improved,--if they could not be bred as cattle. Let Love be purified, and all therest will follow. A pure love is thus, indeed, the panacea for all the ills of the world.
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It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.
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On the whole, Chaucer impresses us as greater than his reputation, and not a little like Homer and Shakespeare, for he would haveheld up his head in their company.
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When we are unhurried and wise, we perceive that only great and worthy things have any permanent and absolute existence, that petty fears and petty pleasures are but the shadow of the reality.
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Law never made men a whit more just and, by means of their respect for it, even the well-disposed are daily made the agents of injustice.
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A healthy man, indeed, is the complement of the seasons, and in winter, summer is in his heart.
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Though I do not believe that a plant will spring up where no seed has been, I have great faith in a seed. Convince me that you have a seed there, and I am prepared to expect wonders.
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A thoroughbred business man cannot enter heartily upon the business of life without first looking into his accounts.
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I fear that we are such gods or demigods only as fauns and satyrs, the divine allied to beasts, the creatures of appetite, and that, to some extent, our very life is our disgrace.
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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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New ideas come into this world somewhat like falling meteors, with a flash and an explosion.
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Do not engage to find things as you think they are.
Henry David Thoreau
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Who is old enough to have learned from experience?
Henry David Thoreau
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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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What is human warfare but just this an effort to make the laws of God and nature take sides with one party.
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All nations love the same jests and tales, Jews, Christians, and Mahometans, and the same translated suffice for all.
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But the divinest poem, or the life of a great man, is the severest satire.... The greater the genius, the keener the edge of the satire.
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What is the singing of birds, or any natural sound, compared with the voice of one we love.
Henry David Thoreau