Quote

The mission of men there seems to be, like so many busy demons, to drive the forest all out of the country, from every solitary beaver swamp and mountain-side, as soon as possible.

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
Every
Mountain
Forest
Men
Soon
Solitary
Like
Side
Demon
Sides
Mission
Beaver
Possible
Missions
Beavers
Seems
Forests
Swamp
Country
Drive
Swamps
Many
Busy
Demons

More quotes by Henry David Thoreau

Image
Rescue the drowning and tie your shoestrings.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
The constant abrasion and decay of our lives makes the soil of our future growth.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
Faith, indeed, is all the reform that is needed it is itself a reform.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
For my part, I could easily do without the post-office. I think that there are very few important communications made through it.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
You speak of poverty and dependence. Who are poor and dependent? Who are rich and independent? When was it that men agreed to respect the appearance and not the reality?
Henry David Thoreau
Image
How to extract its honey from the flower of the world. That is my everyday business. I am as busy as a bee about it. I ramble over fields on that errand and am never so happy as when I feel myself heavy with honey and wax. I am like a bee searching the livelong day for the sweets of nature.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
Be as the sailor who keeps the polestar in his eye. By so doing we may not arrive at our port within a calculable period, but we will maintain a true course.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
In sane moments we regard only the facts, the case that is.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
Invariably our best nights were those when it rained.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government
Henry David Thoreau
Image
We go on dating from Cold Fridays and Great Snows but a little colder Friday, or greater snow would put a period to man's existence on the globe.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
Let your capital be simplicity and contentment.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
I think that I cannot preserve my health and spirits, unless I spend four hours a day at least - and it is commonly more than that - sauntering through the woods and over the hills and fields, absolutely free from all worldly engagements.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
When the reptile is attacked at one mouth of his burrow, he shows himself at another.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
Whatever has not come under the sway of man is wild. In this sense original and independent men are wild - not tamed and broken by society.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
He who cuts down woods beyond a certain limit exterminates birds.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
What a glorious time they must have in that wilderness, far from mankind and election day!
Henry David Thoreau
Image
From my experience with wild apples, I can understand that there may be reason for a savage's preferring many kinds of food which the civilized man rejects. The former has the palate of an outdoor man. It takes a savage or wild taste to appreciate a wild fruit.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
Men nowhere, east or west, live yet a natural life, round which the vine clings, and which the elm willingly shadows. Man would desecrate it by his touch, and so the beauty of the world remains veiled to him. He needs not only to be spiritualized, but naturalized, on the soil of earth.
Henry David Thoreau