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

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Mathematics should be mixed not only with physics but with ethics.
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I have a room all to myself it is nature.
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There is a chasm between knowledge and ignorance which the arches of science can never span.
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How can he remember well his ignorance - which his growth requires - who has so often to use his knowledge?
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Especially the transcendental philosophy needs the leaven of humor to render it light and digestible.
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Talk of mysteries! — Think of our life in nature, — daily to be shown matter, to come in contact with it, — rocks, trees, wind on our cheeks! The solid earth! The actual world! The common sense! Contact! Contact! Who are we? Where are we?
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Man is but the place where I stand.
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It would surpass the powers of a well man nowadays to take up his bed and walk, and I should certainly advise a sick one to lay down his bed and run.
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It is never too late to give up our prejudices. No way of thinking or doing, however, ancient, can be trusted without proof. ... Old deeds for old people, and new deeds for new.
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The United States have a coffle of four millions of slaves. They are determined to keep them in this condition and Massachusettsis one of the confederated overseers to prevent their escape.
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Cast your whole vote, not a strip of paper merely, but your whole influence.
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I bought me a spy-glass some weeks since. I buy but a few things, and those not till long after I begin to want them, so that when I do get them I am prepared to make a perfect use of them and extract their whole sweet.
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I have found it a singular luxury to talk across the pond to a companion on the opposite side.
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Our molting season, like that of the fouls, must be a crisis in our lives.
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The news we hear, for the most part, is not news to our genius. It is the stalest repetition.
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Men do not fail commonly for want of knowledge, but for want of prudence to give wisdom the preference.
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Go confidently ... Live the life that you imagined.
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