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The cart before the horse is neither beautiful nor useful. Before we can adorn our houses with beautiful objects the walls must bestripped, and our lives must be stripped, and beautiful housekeeping and beautiful living laid for a foundation.

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
Beautiful
Horse
Cart
Must
Foundation
Carts
Neither
Stripped
Objects
Houses
Wall
Laid
Lives
Walls
Living
Useful
Adorn
House
Simplicity
Housekeeping

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It is an interesting question how far men would retain their relative rank if they were divested of their clothes.
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There is no ill which may not be dissipated, like the dark, if you let in a stronger light upon it.
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The only government that I recognize--and it matters not how few are at the head of it, or how small its army--is that power thatestablishes justice in the land, never that which establishes injustice.
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O how I laugh when I think of my vague indefinite riches. No run on my bank can drain it, for my wealth is not possession but enjoyment.
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The lover wants no partiality. He says, Be so kind as to be just.
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The universe is wider than our views of it.
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The Slothful do not have the time to become virtuous or despicable.
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Love your life, poor as it is. You may perhaps have some pleasant, thrilling, glorious hours, even in a poor-house.
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Poetry is the mysticism of mankind.
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We should impart our courage and not our despair.
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Our sadness is not sad, but our cheap joys.
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Rise free from care before the dawn, and seek adventures.
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We are in great haste to construct a magnetic telegraph from Maine to Texas but Maine and Texas, it may be, have nothing important to communicate.
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An efficient and valuable man does what he can, whether the community pay him for it or not. The inefficient offer their inefficiency to the highest bidder, and are forever expecting to be put into office. One would suppose that they were rarely disappointed.
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