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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.

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
Life
Faith
Artificial
Experience
Maintain
Inspirational
Pursuit
Stills
Convinced
Pursuits
Earth
Short
Pastime
Still
Simply
Simpler
Live
Sports
Wisely
Self
Nations
Hardship

More quotes by Henry David Thoreau

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Do not entertain doubts if they are not agreeable to you.
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For most men, it appears to me, are in a strange uncertainty about it (life), whether it is of the devil or of God, and have somewhat hastily concluded that it is the chief end of man here to 'glorify God and enjoy him forever.'
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It is surprising how many great men and women a small house will contain.
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Let go of the past and go for the future.
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There were times when I could not afford to sacrifice the bloom of the present moment to any work, whether of the head or hand. I love a broad margin to my life.
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The constant abrasion and decay of our lives makes the soil of our future growth.
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I come to my solitary woodland walk as the homesick go home. I thus dispose of the superfluous and see things as they are, grand and beautiful.
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Whatever we leave to God, God does and blesses us.
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WE begin to die not in our sense or extremities, but in our divine faculties.
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All health and success does me good, however far off and withdrawn it may appear all disease and failure helps to make me sad anddoes me evil, however much sympathy it may have with me or I with it.
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You must not blame me if I do talk to the clouds.
Henry David Thoreau
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The laboring man has not leisure for a true integrity day by day.
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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 planting of the seeds of most trees, the best gardeners do no more than follow Nature, though they may not know it.
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If a thousand men were not to pay their tax-bills this year, that would ... [be] the definition of a peaceable revolution, if any such is possible.
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A man is wise with the wisdom of his time only, and ignorant with its ignorance.
Henry David Thoreau
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In the long run, we only hit what we aim at.
Henry David Thoreau
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Every path but your own is the path of fate. Keep on your own track, then.
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It is impossible to give a soldier a good education without making him a deserter. His natural foe is the government that drills him.
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Long enough I had heard of irrelevant things now at length I was glad to make acquaintance with the light that dwells in rotten wood. Where is all your knowledge gone to? It evaporates completely, for it has no depth.
Henry David Thoreau