Quote

The schools begin with what they call the elements, and where do they end?

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
Elements
Begin
Education
Call
Ends
School
Schools

More quotes by Henry David Thoreau

Image
Say, Not so, and you will out circle the philosophers.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
The book exists for us, perchance, which will explain our miracles and reveal new ones.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
How sweet it would be to treat men and things, for an hour, for just what they are!
Henry David Thoreau
Image
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.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
I believe that the mind can be permanently profaned by the habit of attending to trivial things, so that all our thoughts shall be tinged with triviality.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
Knowledge does not come to us in details, but in flashes of light from heaven.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
Nature is not made after such a fashion as we would have her. We piously exaggerate her wonders, as the scenery around our home.
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
Bread may not always nourish us but it always does us good, it even takes stiffness out of our joints, and makes us supple and buoyant, when we knew not what ailed us, to recognize any generosity in man or Nature, to share any unmixed and heroic joy.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
The best books are not read even by those who are called good readers. What does our Concord culture amount to? There is in this town, with a very few exceptions, no taste for the best or for very good books even in English literature, whose words all can read and spell.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
We should seek to be fellow students with the pupil, and should learn of, as well as with him, if we would be most helpful to him.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
As a true patriot, I should be ashamed to think that Adam in paradise was more favorably situated on the whole than the backwoodsman in this country.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
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.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
If we cannot sing of faith and triumph, we will sing our despair. We will be that kind of bird. There are day owls, and there arenight owls, and each is beautiful and even musical while about its business.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
We can never have enough of Nature.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
Despair and postponement are cowardice and defeat. Men were born to succeed, not to fail.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
I believe that it is in my power to elevate myself this very hour above the common level of my life.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
The earth I tread on is not a dead inert mass. It is a body, has a spirit is organic and fluid to the influence of its spirit and to whatever particle of the spirit is in me.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
A man will not need to study history to find out what is best for his own culture.
Henry David Thoreau
Image
Men go to a fire for entertainment. When I see how eagerly men will run to a fire, whether in warm or in cold weather, by day or by night, dragging an engine at their heels, I'm astonished to perceive how good a purpose the level of excitement is made to serve.
Henry David Thoreau