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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.

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
Really
Concerned
Nation
Liberty
Nations
Perchance
Freedom
Defenses
Free
Politicians
May
Defense
Children
Politician

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To have done anything just for money is to have been truly idle.
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These men, in teaching us how to die, have at the same time taught us how to live. If this man's acts and words do not create a revival, it will be the severest possible satire on the acts and words that do. It is the best news that America has ever heard.... How many a man who was lately contemplating suicide has now something to live for!
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Governments show thus how successfully men can be imposed on, even impose on themselves, for their own advantage.
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Nothing can shock a brave man but dullness.
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Of what significance are the things you can forget.
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We make needless ado about capital punishment,--taking lives, when there is no life to take.
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I am never rich in money, and I am never meanly poor.
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Glances of true beauty can be seen in the faces of those who live in true meekness.
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Blessed are they who never read a newspaper, for they shall see Nature, and through her, God.
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My friend is one... who take me for what I am.
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Man cannot afford to be a naturalist, to look at Nature directly, but only with the side of his eye. He must look through and beyond her.
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As for me, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are now only the subtlest imaginable essences, which would not stain the morning sky.
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I can alter my life by altering my attitude. He who would have nothing to do with thorns must never attempt to gather flowers.
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Nature has no human inhabitant who appreciates her.
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Translate a book a dozen times from one language to another, and what becomes of its style? Most books would be worn out and disappear in this ordeal. The pen which wrote it is soon destroyed, but the poem survives.
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The strongest wind cannot stagger a Spirit it is a Spirit's breath. A just man's purpose cannot be split on any Grampus or material rock, but itself will split rocks till it succeeds.
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May we so love as never to have occasion to repent of our love!
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I am a good horse to travel, but not from choice a roadster. The landscape-painter uses the figures of men to mark a road. He would not make that use of my figure.
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