Quotes from Henry David Thoreau

the natural remedy is to be found in the proportion which the night bears to the day

There are nine hundred and ninety-nine patrons of virtue to one virtuous man; but it is easier to deal with the real possessor of a thing than with the temporary guardian of it.

behold a marine, such a man as an American government can make, or such as it can make a man with its black arts, a mere shadow and reminiscence of humanity, a man laid out alive and standing, and already, as one may say, buried under arms with funeral accompaniments

What is called eloquence in the forum is commonly found to be rhetoric in the study.

La meta de un buen gobierno es darle más valor a la vida; la de un mal gobierno, restarle valor.

They honestly think there is no choice left. But alert and healthy natures remember that the sun rose clear. It is never too late to give up our prejudices.

Why should our life be in any respect provincial? If we will read newspapers, why not skip the gossip of Boston and take the best newspaper in the world at once?—

Some would find fault with the morning-red, if they ever got up early enough.

Do empenho vem a sabedoria e a pureza; da preguiça a ignorância e a sensualidade. Uma pessoa impura é universalmente preguiçosa, que se senta junto à estufa, deita-se ao calor do sol, repousa sem estar cansada. Se vocês querem evitar a impureza e todos os pecados, que trabalhem com empenho, mesmo que seja limpando um estábulo. A natureza é difícil de vencer, mas deve ser vencida.

While civilization has been improving our houses, it has not equally improved the men who are to inhabit them.

Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed and in such desperate enterprises? If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away. It is not important that he should mature as soon as an apple tree or an oak. Shall he turn his spring into summer? If the condition of things which we were made for is not yet, what were any reality which we can substitute?

In most books, the I, or first person, is omitted; in this it will be retained; that, in respect to egotism, is the main difference. We commonly do not remember that it is, after all, always the first person that is speaking.

Confucius said,—"If a State is governed by the principles of reason, poverty and misery are subjects of shame; if a State is not governed by the principles of reason, riches and honors are the subjects of shame.

Innan vi kan pryda våra hus med vackra föremål måste väggarna plockas rena, våra liv rensas ut, därefter kan vi börja med ett gott hushåll och ett vackert liv från grunden; som det är nu odlas smaken för det sköna bäst utomhus, där det varken finns hus eller hushåll

Ich für meinen Teil war nie besonders wählerisch; wenn es nötig wäre, könnte ich eine gebratene Ratte mit Appetit verzehren. Ich bin froh, immer Wasser getrunken zu haben, und das aus dem gleichen Grund, aus dem ich den natürlichen Himmel dem eines Opiumrauchers vorziehe.

As with our colleges, so with a hundred modern improvements; there is an illusion about them; there is not always a positive advance. The devil goes on exacting compound interest to the last for his early share and numerous succeeding investments in them. Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end, an end which it was already but too easy to arrive at; as railroads lead to Boston or New York.

Wir müssen lernen, wieder wach zu werden. und uns wach zu erhalten, nicht durch mechanische Mittel, sondern durch das unaufhörliche Erwarten des Sonnenaufgangs, welches uns nicht verlassen darf im tiefsten Schlaf

This whole earth which we inhabit is but a point in space. How far apart, think you, dwell the two most distant inhabitants of yonder star, the breadth of whose disk cannot be appreciated by our instruments? Why should I feel lonely? Is not our planet in the Milky Way?

Most men I do not meet at all, for they seem not to have time; they are busy about their beans.

Não é desejável cultivar o respeito às leis no mesmo nível do respeito aos direitos. (...) A lei nunca fez os homens sequer um pouco mais justos; e o respeito reverente pela lei tem levado até mesmo os bem-intencionados a agir quotidianamente como mensageiros da injustiça.

the poem of the world is uninterrupted, but few are the ears that hear it.

Toda a nobreza logo começa a refinar os traços de um homem; toda mesquinharia ou sensualidade, a embrutecê-los

It is the greatest of all advantages to enjoy no advantage at all.

The community has no bribe that will tempt a wise man. You may raise money enough to tunnel a mountain, but you cannot raise money enough to hire a man who is minding his own business. 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.