Quote

As far as our noblest hardwood forests are concerned, the animals, especially squirrels and jays, are our greatest and almost only benefactors. It is to them that we owe this gift. It is not in vain that the squirrels live in or about every forest tree, or hollow log, and every wall and heap of stones.

Henry David Thoreau

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Tree
Forests
Jays
Greatest
Vain
Hardwood
Animal
Stones
Benefactors
Almost
Animals
Squirrels
Live
Gift
Heap
Every
Concerned
Noblest
Especially
Hollow
Wall
Forest

More quotes by Henry David Thoreau

Image
That government is best which governs the least, because its people discipline themselves.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
I repeat that in this sense the most splendid court in Christendom is provincial, having authority to consult about Transalpine interests only, and not the affairs of Rome. A prætor or proconsul would suffice to settle the questions which absorb the attention of the English Parliament and the American Congress.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
Beside some philosophers of larger vision, Carlyle stands like an honest, half-despairing boy, grasping at some details only of their world systems.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
A man might well pray that he may not taboo or curse any portion of nature by being buried in it.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
I think we may safely trust a good deal more than we do.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
It is only necessary to behold the least fact or phenomenon, however familiar, from a point a hair's breadth aside from our habitual path or routine, to be overcome, enchanted by its beauty and significance ... To perceive freshly, with fresh senses is to be inspired.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
The greatest and saddest defect is not credulity, but an habitual forgetfulness that our science is ignorance.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
What is sour in the house a bracing walk in the woods makes sweet.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
We cannot well do without our sins they are the highway of our virtue.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
We are born as innocents. We are polluted by advice.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
In the meanest are all the materials of manhood, only they are not rightly disposed.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aid, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
I lose my respect for the man who can make the mystery of sex the subject of a coarse jest, yet when you speak earnestly and seriously on the subject, is silent.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
I have thought there was some advantage even in death, by which we mingle with the herd of common men.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
The only way to speak the truth is to speak lovingly.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
Why should not our whole life and its scenery be actually thus fair and distinct? All our lives want a suitable background. They should at least, like the life of the anchorite, be as impressive to behold as objects in a desert, a broken shaft or crumbling mound against a limitless horizon.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
Is the babe young? When I behold it, it seems more venerable than the oldest man.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
Some, it seems to me, elect their rulers for their crookedness. But I think that a straight stick makes the best cane, and an upright man the best ruler.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
Lose the world, get lost in it, and find your soul.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
How many things there are concerning which we might well deliberate whether we had better know them.
Henry David Thoreau