Quote

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

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
Straight
Crookedness
Integrity
Cane
Makes
Upright
Seems
Ruler
Best
Elect
Men
Rulers
Think
Stick
Thinking
Sticks

More quotes by Henry David Thoreau

Image
Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
It [is of] some advantage to live a primitive and frontier life, though in the midst of an outward civilization, if only to learn what are the gross necessities of life.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
I would not have every man nor every part of a man cultivated, any more than I would have every acre of earth cultivated: part will be tillage, but the greater part will be meadow and forest, not only serving an immediate use, but preparing a mould against a distant future, by the annual decay of the vegetation which it supports.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
Some circumstantial evidence is very strong, as when you find a trout in the milk.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
For hours, in fall days, I watched the ducks cunningly tack and veer and hold the middle of the pond, far from the sportsman... but what beside safety they got by sailing in the middle of Walden I do not know, unless they love its water for the same reason that I do.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
Men are as innocent as the morning to the unsuspicious.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
All questions rely on the present for their solution. Time measures nothing but itself. The word that is written may be postponed,but not that on the lip. If this is what the occasion says, let the occasion say it.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
When a shadow flits across the landscape of the soul where is the substance?
Henry David Thoreau
Image
Fishing has been styled 'a contemplative man's recreation,' ... and science is only a more contemplative man's recreation.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
When I meet a government which says to me, Your money or your life, why should I be in haste to give it my money?
Henry David Thoreau
Image
He is the best sailor who can steer within the fewest points of the wind, and extract a motive power out of the greatest obstacles. Most begin to veer and tack as soon as the wind changes from aft, and as within the tropics it does not blow from all points of the compass, there are some harbors which they can never reach.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
I have never met with a friend who furnished me sea-room. I have only tacked a few times and come to anchor - not sailed - made no voyage, carried no venture.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
Though I do not believe that a plant will spring up where no seed has been, I have great faith in a seed. Convince me that you have a seed there, and I am prepared to expect wonders.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
Commonly men will only be brave as their fathers were brave, or timid.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
There is no just and serene criticism as yet.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
Work your vein till it is exhausted, or conducts you to a broader one.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
A man is wise with the wisdom of his time only, and ignorant with its ignorance.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
He may travel who can subsist on the wild fruits and game of the most cultivated country.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
There is all the poetry in the world in a name. It is a poem which the mass of men hear and read. What is poetry in the common sense, but a hearing of such jingling names? I want nothing better than a good word. The name of a thing may easily be more than the thing itself to me.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
No definition of poetry is adequate unless it be poetry itself. The most accurate analysis by the rarest wisdom is yet insufficient, and the poet will instantly prove it false by setting aside its requisitions. It is indeed all that we do not know.
Henry David Thoreau