He sounds, as it were, the fatal bottom of our…

He sounds, as it were, the fatal bottom of our organic existence, and yet claims not merely to accept the universe, as another Transcendentalist, Margaret Fuller, put it, but to rejoice in it…. To the dark immensity of material Nature’s indifference we can oppose only the brief light, like a lamp in a cabin, of our consciousness; the invigorating benison of Walden is to make us feel that the contest is equal, and fair. It has emerged over time as one of the great testaments of American individualism, assuring the New World, traditional reassurances failing, of the value, power, and beauty of the unfettered self.

Quotes about Thoreau

John Updike, in “A Sage for All Seasons” in The Guardian (26 June 2004)

Other Henry David Thoreau Quotes

If you can speak what you will never hear, if you can write what you will never read, you have done rare things. - View Quote Details on If you can speak what you will never hear, if…
The same law that shapes the earth-star shapes the snow-star. As surely as the petals of a flower are fixed, each of these countless snow-stars comes whirling to earth…these glorious spangles, the sweeping of heaven’s floor. - View Quote Details on The same law that shapes the earth-star shapes the snow-star…
Public opinion is a weak tyrant compared with our own private opinion. What a man thinks of himself, that is which determines, or rather indicates, his fate. - View Quote Details on Public opinion is a weak tyrant compared with our own…
The perception of beauty is a moral test. - View Quote Details on The perception of beauty is a moral test.
Whate’er we leave to God, God does
And blesses us. - View Quote Details on Whate’er we leave to God, God does
And blesses us.
It is in vain to dream of a wildness distant from ourselves. - View Quote Details on It is in vain to dream of a wildness distant…
As if our birth had at first sundered things, and we had been thrust up through into nature like a wedge, and not till the wound heals and the scar disappears, do we begin to discover where we are, and that nature is one and continuous everywhere. - View Quote Details on As if our birth had at first sundered things, and…
For many years I was self-appointed inspector of snowstorms and rainstorms, and did my duty faithfully, though I never received one cent for it. - View Quote Details on For many years I was self-appointed inspector of snowstorms and…
Is a democracy, such as we know it, the last improvement possible in government? Is it not possible to take a step further towards recognizing and organizing the rights of man? 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, and treats him accordingly. I please myself with imagining a State at least which can afford to be just to all men, and to treat the individual with respect as a neighbor; which even would not think it inconsistent with its own repose if a few were to live aloof from it, not meddling with it, nor embraced by it, who fulfilled all the duties of neighbors and fellow-men. A State which bore this kind of fruit, and suffered it to drop off as fast as it ripened, would prepare the way for a still more perfect and glorious State, which also I have imagined, but not yet anywhere seen. - View Quote Details on Is a democracy, such as we know it, the last…
How does it become a man to behave toward this American government today? I answered that he cannot without disgrace be associated with it. - View Quote Details on How does it become a man to behave toward this…