Quotes from Henry David Thoreau

I think that the farmer displaces the Indian even because he redeems the meadow, and so makes himself stronger and in some respects more natural.

I do not wish, it happens, to be associated with Massachusetts, either in holding slaves or in conquering Mexico. I am a little better than herself in these respects.

For a man to act himself, he must be perfectly free; otherwise he is in danger of losing all sense of responsibility or of self- respect.

My actual life is a fact, in view of which I have no occasion to congratulate myself; but for my faith and aspiration I have respect. It is from these that I speak.

Even in our democratic New England towns the accidental possession of wealth, and its manifestation in dress and equipage alone, obtain for the possessor almost universal respect.

In human intercourse the tragedy begins, not when there is misunderstanding about words, but when silence is not understood.

There has always been the same amount of light in the world. The new and missing stars, the comets and eclipses, do not affect thegeneral illumination, for only our glasses appreciate them.

Each thought that is welcomed and recorded is a nest egg, by the side of which more will be laid.

Knowledge does not come to us in details, but in flashes of light from heaven.

The intellect is a cleaver; it discerns and rifts its way into the secrets of things.

I will come to you, my friend, when I no longer need you. Then you will find a palace, not an almshouse.

The imagination never forgets; it is a re-membering. It is not foundationless, but most reasonable, and it alone uses all the knowledge of the intellect.

Always the laws of light are the same, but the modes and degrees of seeing vary.

Ex oriente lux may still be the motto of scholars, for the Western world has not yet derived from the East all the light which itis destined to receive thence.

Genius is a light which makes the darkness visible, like the lightning's flash, which perchance shatters the temple of knowledge itself.

The researcher is more memorable than the researched.

We are as much as we see. Faith is sight and knowledge. The hands only serve the eyes.

Some creatures are made to see in the dark.

If you would convince a man that he does wrong, do right. But do not care to convince him. Men will believe what they see. Let them see.

It is never too late to give up our prejudices.

With all your science can you tell me how it is, and when it is, that light comes into the soul?

We hear and apprehend only what we already half know.

Can there be any greater reproach than an idle learning? Learn to split wood, at least.

It is only when we forget our learning, do we begin to know.