I trust that some may be as near and dear…

I trust that some may be as near and dear to Buddha, or Christ, or Swedenborg, who are without the pale of their churches. It is necessary not to be Christian to appreciate the beauty and significance of the life of Christ. I know that some will have hard thoughts of me, when they hear their Christ named beside my Buddha, yet I am sure that I am willing they should love their Christ more than my Buddha, for the love is the main thing, and I like him too.

Sourced, A Week on the Concord and Marrimack Rivers
(1849)

Other Henry David Thoreau Quotes

It is so rare to meet with a man out-doors who cherishes a worthy thought in his mind, which is independent of the labor of his hands. - View Quote Details on It is so rare to meet with a man out-doors…
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.
To some extent, mythology is only the most ancient history and biography. So far from being false or fabulous in the common sense, it contains only enduring and essential truth, the I and you, the here and there, the now and then, being omitted. Either time or rare wisdom writes it. Before printing was discovered, a century was equal to a thousand years. The poet is he who can write some pure mythology to-day without the aid of posterity - View Quote Details on To some extent, mythology is only the most ancient history…
Friends — They are like air bubbles on water, hastening to flow together. History tells of Orestes and Pylades, Damon and Pythias, but why should not we put to shame those old reserved worthies by a community of such? Constantly, as it were through a remote skylight, I have glimpses of a serene friendship-land, and know the better why brooks murmur and violets grow. This conjunction of souls, like waves which met and break, subsides also backward over things, and gives all a fresh aspect. I would live henceforth with some gentle soul such a life as may be conceived, double for variety, single for harmony — two, only that we might admire at our oneness — one, because indivisible. Such community to be a pledge of holy living. How could aught unworthy be admitted into our society? To listen with one ear to each summer sound, to behold with one eye each summer scene, our visual rays so to meet and mingle with the object as to be one bent and doubled; with two tongues to be wearied, and thought to spring ceaselessly from a double fountain. - View Quote Details on Friends — They are like air bubbles on water, hastening…
The frontiers are not east or west, north or south, but wherever a man fronts a fact, though that fact be his neighbor, there is an unsettled wilderness between him and Canada, between him and the setting sun, or, farther still, between him and it. - View Quote Details on The frontiers are not east or west, north or south,…
Great God, I ask thee for no meaner pelf
Than that I may not disappoint myself,
That in my action I may soar as high
As I can now discern with this clear eye. - View Quote Details on Great God, I ask thee for no meaner pelf
Than that…
If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. - View Quote Details on If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams,…
It is not enough to be industrious; so are the ants. What are you industrious about? - View Quote Details on It is not enough to be industrious; so are the…
The New Testament is an invaluable book, though I confess to having been slightly prejudiced against it in my very early days by the church and the Sabbath school, so that it seemed, before I read it, to be the yellowest book in the catalogue. Yet I early escaped from their meshes. It was hard to get the commentaries out of one’s head and taste its true flavor. — I think that Pilgrim’s Progress is the best sermon which has been preached from this text; almost all other sermons that I have heard, or heard of, have been but poor imitations of this. — It would be a poor story to be prejudiced against the Life of Christ because the book has been edited by Christians. - View Quote Details on The New Testament is an invaluable book, though I confess…
What are the earth and all its interests beside the deep surmise which pierces and scatters them? - View Quote Details on What are the earth and all its interests beside the…