Quote

Let a man take time enough for the most trivial deed, though it be but the paring of his nails. The buds swell imperceptibly, without hurry or confusion,--as if the short spring days were an eternity.

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
Translator
Writer
birthplace of Henry David Thoreau
Thoreau
Henry D. Thoreau
Short
Hurry
Days
Deed
Though
Moderation
Paring
Without
Nails
Imperceptibly
Take
Confusion
Buds
Enough
Deeds
Swell
Men
Eternity
Bud
Time
Spring
Trivial

More quotes by Henry David Thoreau

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Where is the unexplored land but in our own untried enterprises? To an adventurous spirit any place--London, New York, Worcester, or his own yard--is unexplored land, to seek which Frémont and Kane travel so far. To a sluggish and defeated spirit even the Great Basin and the Polaris are trivial places.
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You must not blame me if I do talk to the clouds.
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Spending of the best part of one's life earning money in order to enjoy questionable liberty during the least valuable part of it, reminds me of the Englishman who went to India to make a fortune first, in order that he might return to England and live the life of a poet. He should have gone up garret at once.
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The sacredness, if there is any, is all in yourself and not in the place.
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Friends will be much apart. They will respect more each other's privacy than their communion.
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I have thought there was some advantage even in death, by which we mingle with the herd of common men.
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The same soil is good for men and for trees. A man's health requires as many acres of meadow to his prospect as his farm does loads of muck.
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Think for yourself, or others will think for you without thinking of you.
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I once found a kernel of corn in the middle of a deep wood by Walden, tucked in behind a lichen on a pine, about as high as my head, either by a crow or a squirrel. It was a mile at least from any corn-field.
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Live your beliefs and you can turn the world around.
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We are a nation of politicians, concerned about the outmost defenses only of freedom. It is our children's children who may perchance be really free.
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Why should not a poet's cat be winged as well as his horse?
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Morning brings back the heroic ages.
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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.
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Work your vein till it is exhausted, or conducts you to a broader one.
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Justice is sweet and musical but injustice is harsh and discordant.
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As long as there is satire, the poet is, as it were, particeps criminis.
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Show me a man who feels bitterly toward John Brown, and let me hear what noble verse he can repeat. He'll be as dumb as if his lips were stone.
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There is one consolation in being sick and that is the possibility that you may recover to a better state than you were ever in before.
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This life we live is a strange dream, and I don't believe at all any account men give of it.
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