Quotes from Henry David Thoreau

Wir sind meistens einsamer, wenn wir uns unter Menschen begeben, als wenn wir in unseren Zimmern bleiben.

On doit vivre en soi, ne dépendre que de soi, et, toujours à pied d'œuvre et prêt à repartir, ne pas s'encombrer de multiples affaires.

Good writing as well as good acting will be obedience to conscience. There must not be a particle of will or whim mixed with it. If we can listen, we shall hear. By reverently listening to the inner voice, we may reinstate ourselves on the pinnacle of humanity.

Two sturdy oaks I mean, which side by side, Withstand the winter's storm, And spite of wind and tide, Grow up the meadow's pride, For both are strong   Above they barely touch, but undermined Down to their deepest source, Admiring you shall find Their roots are intertwined Insep'rably.

Nous aimons l'éloquence pour l'éloquence et non pour la vérité qu'elle peut énoncer ou l'héroïsme qu'elle peut inspirer.

for this world a family mansion, and for the

Will mankind never learn that policy is not morality--that it never secures any moral right, but considers merely what is expedient?

Jamais il n'y aura d'État vraiment libre et éclairé, tant que l'État n'en viendra pas à reconnaître à l'individu un pouvoir supérieur et indépendant d'où découlerait tout le pouvoir et l'autorité d'un gouvernement prêt à traiter l'individu en conséquence.

The surface of the earth is soft and impressible by the feet of men; and so with the paths which the mind travels. How worn and dusty, then, must be the highways of the world, how deep the ruts of tradition and conformity!

I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion.

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not to be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.

Mi región ofrece gran número de paseos espléndidos; y aunque durante muchos años he caminado prácticamente cada día, y a veces durante varios días, aún no los he agotado. Un panorama completamente nuevo me hace muy feliz, y sigo encontrando uno cada tarde. Dos o tres horas de camino me llevan a una zona tan desconocida como siempre espero. Una granja solitaria que no haya visto antes resulta a veces tan magnífica como los dominios del rey de Dahomey.

Não vejo porque um espírito sereno não possa viver com o mesmo contentamento e com pensamentos alegres num asilo ou um palácio

is not Nature, rightly read, that of which she is commonly taken to be the symbol merely?

The wildest sound ever heard makes the woods ring far and wide.

know one or two families, at least, in this town, who, for nearly a generation, have been wishing to sell their houses in the outskirts and move into the village, but have not been able to accomplish it, and only death will set them free.

There can be no very black melancholy for him who has his senses still and lives in the midst of nature.

Fui a los bosques porque quería vivir deliberadamente; enfrentar solo los hechos de la vida y ver si podía aprender lo que ella tenía que enseñar. Quise vivir profundamente y desechar todo aquello que no fuera vida... para no darme cuenta, en el momento de morir, que no había vivido.

Não se incomode muito em ter coisas novas, sejam roupas ou amizades [...]. As coisas não mudam; mudamos nós

walks—who had a genius, so to speak, for SAUNTERING, which word is beautifully derived from idle people who roved about the country, in the Middle Ages, and asked charity, under pretense of going a la Sainte Terre, to the Holy Land, till the children exclaimed, There goes a Sainte-Terrer, a Saunterer, a Holy-Lander.

Still we live meanly, like ants... Our life is frittered away by detail. An honest man has hardly need to count more than his ten fingers, or in extreme cases he may add his ten toes, and lump the rest. Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb-nail.

We should go forth on the shortest walk, perchance, in the spirit of undying adventure, never to return—prepared to send back our embalmed hearts only as relics to our desolate kingdoms.

Most men appear never to have considered what a house is, and are actually though needlessly poor all their lives because they think that they must have such a one as their neighbors have.

I make a great account of these fruits, which the farmers do not think it worth the while to gather,—wild flavors of the Muse, vivacious and inspiriting. The farmer thinks that he has better in his barrels, but he is mistaken, unless he has a walker's appetite and imagination, neither of which can he have.