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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.

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
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birthplace of Henry David Thoreau
Thoreau
Henry D. Thoreau
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Best
Elect
Men
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Think
Stick
Thinking
Sticks
Straight
Crookedness
Integrity
Cane
Makes
Upright

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He who is conversant with the supernal powers will not worship these inferior deities of the wind, waves, tide, and sunshine. Butwe would not disparage the importance of such calculations as we have described. They are truths in physics because they are true in ethics.
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All that man has to say or do that can possibly concern mankind is in some shape or other to tell the story of his love-to sing, and, if he is fortunate and keeps alive, he will be forever in love.
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The Great Snow! How cheerful it is to hear of!
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Man makes very much such a nest for his domestic animals, of withered grass and fodder, as the squirrels and many other wild creatures do for themselves.
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Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.
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The fishermen say that the thundering of the pond scares the fishes and prevents their biting.
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It is surprising how many great men and women a small house will contain.
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I believe that it is in my power to elevate myself this very hour above the common level of my life.
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Such were garrulous and noisy eras, which no longer yield any sound, but the Grecian or silent and melodious era is ever soundingand resounding in the ears of men.
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How earthy old people become --moldy as the grave! Their wisdom smacks of the earth. There is no foretaste of immortality in it. They remind me of earthworms and mole crickets.
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When we come down into the distant village, visible from the mountain-top, the nobler inhabitants with whom we peopled it have departed, and left only vermin in its desolate streets. It is the imagination of poets which puts those brave speeches into the mouths of their heroes.
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There is no ill which may not be dissipated, like the dark, if you let in a stronger light upon it.
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Even the best things are not equal to their fame.
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The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.
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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.
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At a certain season of our life we are accustomed to consider every spot as the possible site of a house.
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Always the laws of light are the same, but the modes and degrees of seeing vary.
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But what is quackery? It is commonly an attempt to cure the diseases of a man by addressing his body alone. There is need of a physician who shall minister to both soul and body at once, that is, to man. Now he falls between two stools.
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Let the beautiful laws prevail. Let us not weary ourselves by resisting them.
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We cannot but pity the boy who has never fired a gun he is no more humane, while his education has been sadly neglected.
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