Quote

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

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
Machine
Injustice
Machines
Wear
Necessary
Perchance
Part
Friction
Government
Disobedience
Smooth

More quotes by Henry David Thoreau

Image
The discoveries which we make abroad are special and particular those which we make at home are general and significant. The further off, the nearer the surface. The nearer home, the deeper.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
It is no more dusky in ordinary nights than our mind's habitual atmosphere, and the moonlight is as bright as our most illuminatedmoments are.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
I am a happy camper so I guess I’m doing something right. Happiness is like a butterfly the more you chase it, the more it will elude you, but if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
There is an incessant influx of novelty into the world, and yet we tolerate incredible dullness.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
I feel as if my life had grown more outward when I can express it.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
A healthy man, indeed, is the complement of the seasons, and in winter, summer is in his heart.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
The ancient philosophers, Chinese, Hindu, Persian, and Greek, were a class than which none has been poorer in outward riches, none so rich inward.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
All sensuality is one, though it takes many forms all purity is one. It is the same whether a man eat, or drink, or cohabit, or sleep sensually. They are but one appetite, and we only need to see a person do any one of these things to know how great a sensualist he is. The impure can neither stand nor sit with purity.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
Men spend the best parts of their lives earning money in order to enjoy a questionable liberty during the least valuable part of it.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
Poetry is nothing but healthy speech.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
The monster is never just there where we think he is. What is truly monstrous is our cowardice and sloth.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
Politics is the gizzard of society, full of grit and gravel, and the two political parties are its opposite halves - sometimes split into quarters - which grind on each other. Not only individuals but states have thus a confirmed dyspepsia.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
Men have become the tools of their tools.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
Knowledge does not come to us in details, but in flashes of light from heaven.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
However much we admire the orator's occasional bursts of eloquence, the noblest written words are commonly as far behind or abovethe fleeting spoken language as the firmament with its stars is behind the clouds.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
Nothing can shock a brave man but dullness.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
It is a relief to read some true book, wherein all are equally dead,--equally alive. I think the best parts of Shakespeare would only be enhanced by the most thrilling and affecting events. I have found it so. And so much the more, as they are not intended for consolation.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
As yesterday and the historical ages are past, as the work of today is present, so some flitting perspectives and demi-experiencesof the life that is in nature are in time veritably future, or rather outside of time, perennial, young, divine, in the wind and rain which never die.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
Spring. March fans it, April christens it, and May puts on its jacket and trousers.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
If a man constantly aspires is he not elevated?
Henry David Thoreau