Quote

Men and boys are learning all kinds of trades but how to make men of themselves. They learn to make houses but they are not so well housed, they are not so contented in their houses, as the woodchucks in their holes.

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
Kind
Labor
Woodchucks
Make
Boys
Housed
Men
Learning
Trades
Education
Contented
Learn
Houses
House
Holes
Wells
Kinds
Well
Trade

More quotes by Henry David Thoreau

Image
It is true, we are such poor navigators that our thoughts, for the most part, stand off and on upon a harborless coast, are conversant only with the bights of the bays of poesy, or steer for the public ports of entry, and go into the dry docks of science, where they merely refit for this world, and no natural currents concur to individualize them.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
Live in each season as it passes: breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
A slight sound at evening lifts me up by the ears, and makes life seem inexpressibly serene and grand. It may be Uranus, or it may be in the shutter.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
It is not worth the while to live by rich cookery.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
It is the marriage of the soul with nature that makes the intellect fruitful, and gives birth to imagination
Henry David Thoreau
Image
At the extreme north, the voyagers are obliged to dance and act plays for employment.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
If you indulge in long periods, you must be sure to have a snapper at the end.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
While the Republic has already acquired a history world-wide, America is still unsettled and unexplored. Like the English in New Holland, we live only on the shores of a continent even yet, and hardly know where the rivers come from which float our navy.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
Blessed are they who never read a newspaper, for they shall see Nature, and through her, God.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
However mean your life is, meet it and live it.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
I can alter my life by altering my attitude. He who would have nothing to do with thorns must never attempt to gather flowers.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
Love is the profoundest of secrets. Divulged, even to the beloved, it is no longer Love. As if it were merely I that loved you. When love ceases, then it is divulged.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
For one that comes with a pencil to sketch or sing, a thousand come with an axe or rifle. What a coarse and imperfect use Indiansand hunters make of nature! No wonder that their race is so soon exterminated.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
If a thousand men were not to pay their tax-bills this year, that would ... [be] the definition of a peaceable revolution, if any such is possible.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
We never conceive the greatness of our fates.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
A grain of gold will gild a great surface, but not so much as a grain of wisdom.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
Far travel, very far travel, or travail, comes near to the worth of staying at home.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
Many men walk by day few walk by night. It is a different season.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
Is not disease the rule of existence? There is not a lily pad floating on the river but has been riddled by insects. Almost every shrub and tree has its gall, oftentimes esteemed its chief ornament and hardly to be distinguished from the fruit. If misery loves company, misery has company enough. Now, at midsummer, find me a perfect leaf or fruit.
Henry David Thoreau