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The great art of life is how to turn the surplus life of the soul into life for the body.

Henry David Thoreau

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Henry David Thoreau
Age: 44 †
Born: 1817
Born: July 12
Died: 1862
Died: May 6
Abolitionist
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Ecologist
Environmentalist
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Philosopher
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birthplace of Henry David Thoreau
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Henry D. Thoreau
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All that is told of the sea has a fabulous sound to an inhabitant of the land and all its products have a certain fabulous quality, as if they belonged to another planet.
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I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government
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I sometimes despair of getting anything quite simple and honest done in this world by the help of men. They would have to be passed through a powerful press first, to squeeze their old notions out of them, so that they would not soon get upon their legs again.
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Continued traveling is far from productive. It begins with wearing away the soles of the shoes, and making the feet sore, and erelong it will wear a man clean up, after making his heart sore into the bargain. I have observed that the afterlife of those who have traveled much is very pathetic.
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He who eats the fruit should at least plant the seed ay, if possible, a better seed than that whose fruit he has enjoyed.
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Rescue the drowning and tie your shoestrings.
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I do not know at first what it is that harms me. The men and things of to-day are wont to be fairer and truer in to-morrow's memory.
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Some creatures are made to see in the dark.
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Today...the bluebirds, old and young, have revisited their box, as if they would fain repeat the summer without intervention of winter, if Nature would let them.
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Every ambitious would-be empire, clarions it abroad that she is conquering the world to bring it peace, security and freedom, and it is sacrificing her sons only for the most noble and humanitarian purposes. That is a lie and it is an ancient lie, yet generations still rise and believe it.
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There are nine hundred and ninety-nine patrons of virtue to one virtuous man.
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Perfect alchemists I keep who can transmute substances without end, and thus the corner of my garden is an inexhaustible treasure-chest. Here you can dig, not gold, but the value which gold merely represents and there is no Signor Blitz about it.
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What can be expressed in words can be expressed in life.
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In the long run, men hit only what they aim at. Therefore, they had better aim at something high.
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What is man but a mass of thawing clay?
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The stars are the jewels of the night, and perchance surpass anything which day has to show.
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Love your life, poor as it is. You may perhaps have some pleasant, thrilling, glorious hours, even in a poor-house.
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We are always paid for our suspicion by finding what we suspect.
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The news we hear, for the most part, is not news to our genius. It is the stalest repetition.
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