Quotes from Henry David Thoreau

Trade and commerce, if they were not made of Indian rubber, would never manage to bounce over the obstacles which legislators are continually putting in their way.

There is always some accident in the best things, whether thoughts or expressions or deeds. The memorable thought, the happy expression, the admirable deed are only partly ours.

There are nowadays professors of philosophy, but not philosophers

It is not enought to be busy, so are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?

Poetry is nothing but healthy speech.

The works of great poets have never been read by mankind, for only great poets can read them.

We have heard much about the poetry of mathematics, but very little of it has yet been sung. The ancients had a juster notion of their poetic value than we.

If we respected only what is inevitable and has a right to be, music and poetry would resound along the streets.

The poet is he who can write some pure mythology today without the aid of posterity.

The great poem must have the stamp of greatness as well as its essence.

Much of our poetry has the very best manners, but no character.

The poet is blithe and cheery ever, and as well as nature.

Colour which is the poet's wealth is so expensive that most take to mere outline sketches and become men of science.

There will never be a really free and enlightened state until the state comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power and authority are derived.

Politics is but a narrow field.

I felt a positive yearning toward one bush this afternoon. There was a match found for me at last. I fell in love with a shrub oak.

If a man constantly aspires is he not elevated?

We are always paid for our suspicion by finding what we suspect.

The faultfinder will find faults even in paradise.

I did not know that we had ever quarreled.

What a man thinks of himself that is what determines or rather indicates his fate.

When I hear music, I fear no danger. I am invulnerable. I see no foe. I am related to the earliest times, and to the latest.

Thank God men cannot fly, and lay waste the sky as well as the earth.

My profession is to always find God in nature.