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A man receives only what he is ready to receive, whether physically or intellectually or morally, as animals conceive at certain seasons their kind only. We hear and apprehend only what we already half know.

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
Translator
Writer
birthplace of Henry David Thoreau
Thoreau
Henry D. Thoreau
Ready
Intellectually
Hear
Conceive
Animal
Morally
Whether
Physically
Half
Receive
Certain
Seasons
Kind
Animals
Apprehend
Men
Already
Receives

More quotes by Henry David Thoreau

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As in geology, so in social institutions, we may discover the causes of all past changes in the present invariable order of society.
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My greatest skill has been to want but little.
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I could lecture on dry oak leaves I could, but who would hear me? If I were to try it on any large audience, I fear it would be no gain to them, and a positive loss to me. I should have behaved rudely toward my rustling friends.
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Pray, for what do we move ever but to get rid of our furniture, our exuviæ at last to go from this world to another newly furnished, and leave this to be burned?
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Wherever a man separates from the multitude, and goes his own way in this mood, there indeed is a fork in the road, though ordinary travelers may see only a gap in the paling. His solitary path across lots will turn out the higher way of the two.
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Philosophy, having crept clinging to the rocks so far, puts out its feelers many ways in vain.
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In winter we lead a more inward life. Our hearts are warm and cheery, like cottages under drifts.
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I believe that there is a subtle magnetism in Nature, which, if we unconsciously yield to it, will direct us aright.
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I look upon England today as an old gentleman who is travelling with a great deal of baggage, trumpery which has accumulated fromlong housekeeping, which he has not the courage to burn.
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There is always room and occasion enough for a true book on any subject as there is room for more light the brightest day and more rays will not interfere with the first.
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I lose my respect for the man who can make the mystery of sex the subject of a coarse jest, yet when you speak earnestly and seriously on the subject, is silent.
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Some circumstantial evidence is very strong, as when you find a trout in the milk.
Henry David Thoreau
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On the whole, Chaucer impresses us as greater than his reputation, and not a little like Homer and Shakespeare, for he would haveheld up his head in their company.
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Morning brings back the heroic ages.
Henry David Thoreau
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I have found it a singular luxury to talk across the pond to a companion on the opposite side.
Henry David Thoreau
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Rise free from care before the dawn, and seek adventures.
Henry David Thoreau
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Keep up the fires of thought, and all will go well.
Henry David Thoreau
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It is necessary not to be Christian to appreciate the beauty and significance of the life of Christ.
Henry David Thoreau
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Men go back to the mountains, as they go back to sailing ships at sea, because in the mountains and on the sea they must face up.
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Our own country furnishes antiquities as ancient and durable, and as useful, as any rocks at least as well covered with lichens,and a soil which, if it is virgin, is but virgin mould, the very dust of nature. What if we cannot read Rome or Greece, Etruria or Carthage, or Egypt or Babylon, on these are our cliffs bare?
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