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History has neither the venerableness of antiquity, nor the freshness of the modern. It does as if it would go to the beginning ofthings, which natural history might with reason assume to do but consider the Universal History, and then tell us,--when did burdock and plantain sprout first?

Henry David Thoreau

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Henry David Thoreau
Age: 44 †
Born: 1817
Born: July 12
Died: 1862
Died: May 6
Abolitionist
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Autobiographer
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Ecologist
Environmentalist
Essayist
Naturalist
Philosopher
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birthplace of Henry David Thoreau
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More quotes by Henry David Thoreau

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What would we not give for some great poem to read now, which would be in harmony with the scenery,--for if men read aright, methinks they would never read anything but poems. No history nor philosophy can supply their place.
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Beware of any profession for which you must buy new clothes.
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I want the flower and fruit of a man that some fragrance be wafted over from him to me, and some ripeness flavor our intercourse.
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Music is the crystallization of sound.
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The sacredness, if there is any, is all in yourself and not in the place.
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Thank God, they cannot cut down the clouds!
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Nature is fair in proportion as the youth is pure. The heavens and the earth are one flower the earth is the calyx, the heavens the corolla.
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Front yards are not made to walk in, but, at most, through, and you could go in the back way.
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...how deep the ruts of tradition and conformity!
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All misfortune is but a stepping stone to fortune.
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Let nothing come between you and the light.
Henry David Thoreau
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If I ever see more clearly at one time than at another, the medium through which I see is clearer.
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The thinnest yellow light of November is more warming and exhilarating than any wine they tell of. The mite which November contributes becomes equal in value to the bounty of July.
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To be awake is to be completely alive. I have never yet met a man who was quite awake.
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I think we may safely trust a good deal more than we do.
Henry David Thoreau
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Art may varnish and gild, but it can do no more.
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Do not despair of life. You have no doubt force enough to overcome your obstacles. Think of the fox prowling through wood and field in a winter night for something to satisfy his hunger. Notwithstanding cold and the hounds and traps, his race survives. I do not believe any of them ever committed suicide.
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The culture of the hop ... so analagous to the culture and uses of the grape, may afford a theme for future poets.
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New ideas come into this world somewhat like falling meteors, with a flash and an explosion.
Henry David Thoreau
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He is not a true man of science who does not bring some sympathy to his studies, and expect to learn something by behaviour as well as application.
Henry David Thoreau