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Even the utmost good-will and harmony and practical kindness are not sufficient for Friendship, for Friends do not live in harmony merely, as some say, but in melody. We do not wish for Friends to feed and clothe our bodies-neighbors are kind enough for that-but to do the like office to our spirits.

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
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birthplace of Henry David Thoreau
Thoreau
Henry D. Thoreau
Body
Harmony
Spirits
Live
Merely
Feed
Enough
Kindness
Melody
Even
Friendship
Practicals
Kind
Office
Practical
Good
Friends
Sufficient
Clothe
Like
Wish
Bodies
Utmost
Spirit
Neighbor
Neighbors

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I did not go to Boston, for with regard to that place I sympathize with one of my neighbors, an old man, who has not been there since the last war, when he was compelled to go. No, I have a real genius for staying at home.
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It required some rudeness to disturb with our boat the mirror-like surface of the water, in which every twig and blade of grass was so faithfully reflected too faithfully indeed for art to imitate, for only Nature may exaggerate herself.
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Let every one mind his own business, and endeavor to be what he was made.
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In wildness is the preservation of the world.
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The walls that fence our fields, as well as modern Rome, and not less the Parthenon itself, are all built of ruins.
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What a glorious time they must have in that wilderness, far from mankind and election day!
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All endeavour calls for the ability to tramp the last mile, shape the last plan, endure the last hours toil.
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If you're familiar with a principle you don't have to be familiar with all of its applications.
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Give me a Wildness whose glance no civilization can endure.
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If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of government, let it go, let it go: perchance it will wear smooth
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A man might well pray that he may not taboo or curse any portion of nature by being buried in it.
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What I began by reading, I must finish by acting.
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I do not know how to distinguish between waking life and a dream. Are we not always living the life that we imagine we are?
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All the events which make the annals of the nations are but the shadows of our private experiences.
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It is remarkable that almost all speakers and writers feel it to be incumbent on them, sooner or later, to prove or acknowledge the personality of God. Some Earl of Bridgewater, thinking it better late than never, has provided for it in his will. It is a sad mistake.
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Don't spend your time in drilling soldiers, who may turn out hirelings after all, but give to undrilled peasantry a country to fight for.
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As for the complex ways of living, I love them not, however much I practice them. In as many places as possible, I will get my feet down to the earth.
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If labor mainly, or to any considerable degree, serves the purpose of a police, to keep men out of mischief, it indicates a rottenness at the foundation of our community.
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I would give all the wealth of the world, and all the deeds of all the heroes, for one true vision.
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The earth I tread on is not a dead inert mass. It is a body, has a spirit is organic and fluid to the influence of its spirit and to whatever particle of the spirit is in me.
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