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It takes a man of genius to travel in his own country, in his native village to make any progress between his door and his gate.

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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Writer
birthplace of Henry David Thoreau
Thoreau
Henry D. Thoreau
Men
Travel
Doors
Genius
Progress
Gate
Takes
Gates
Home
Village
Country
Native
Make
Door

More quotes by Henry David Thoreau

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Dreams are the touchstones of our character.
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But the place which you have selected for your camp, though never so rough and grim, begins at once to have its attractions, and becomes a very centre of civilization to you: Home is home, be it never so homely.
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My facts shall be falsehoods to the common sense. I would so state facts that they shall be significant, shall be myths or mythologic. Facts which the mind perceived, thoughts which the body thought - with these I deal.
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The repugnance to animal food is not the effect of experience, but is an instinct. It appeared more beautiful to live low and farehard in many respects and though I never did so, I went far enough to please my imagination.
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The strongest wind cannot stagger a Spirit it is a Spirit's breath. A just man's purpose cannot be split on any Grampus or material rock, but itself will split rocks till it succeeds.
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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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I walk out into a nature such as the old prophets and poets Menu, Moses, Homer, Chaucer, walked in. You may name it America, but it is not America. Neither Americus Vespucius, nor Columbus, nor the rest were the discoverers of it. There is a truer account of it in Mythology than in any history of America so called that I have seen.
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No way of thinking or doing, however ancient, can be trusted without proof.
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Be resolutely and faithfully what you are be humbly what you aspire to be.
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I believe that the mind can be permanently profaned by the habit of attending to trivial things, so that all our thoughts shall be tinged with triviality.
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The silence sings. It is musical. I remember a night when it was audible. I heard the unspeakable.
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Some creatures are made to see in the dark.
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A strange age of the world this, when empires, kingdoms, and republics come a-begging to a private man's door, and utter their complaints at his elbow! I cannot take up a newspaper but I find that some wretched government or other, hard pushed and on its last legs, is interceding with me, the reader, to vote for it.
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Furniture! Thank God, I can sit and I can stand without the aid of a furniture warehouse.
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The only sin in the world is ignorance.
Henry David Thoreau
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Undoubtedly, in the most brilliant successes, the first rank is always sacrificed.
Henry David Thoreau
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My enemies are worms, cool days, and most of all woodchucks.
Henry David Thoreau
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I am wont to think that men are not so much the keepers of herds as herds are the keepers of men. The former are so much the freer.
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It is remarkable how long men will believe in the bottomlessness of a pond without taking the trouble to sound it.
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Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance they make the latitudes and longitudes.
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