My books I’d fain cast off, I cannot read, ‘Twixt every…
My books I’d fain cast off, I cannot read,
‘Twixt every page my thoughts go stray at large
Down in the meadow, where is richer feed,
And will not mind to hit their proper targe.
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The Summer Rain , st. 1 (1842)
Other Henry David Thoreau Quotes
- Thoreau believed that one of the arts of life was to make the most of it. He loved the multum in parvo, or pot-luck; to boil up the little into the big. Thus, he was in the habit of saying, — Give me healthy senses, let me be thoroughly alive, and breathe freely in the very flood-tide of the living world. But this should have availed him little, if he had not been at the same time copiously endowed with the power of recording what he imbibed. His senses truly lived twice. - View Quote Details on Thoreau believed that one of the arts of life was…
- It takes two to speak the truth, — one to speak, and another to hear. - View Quote Details on It takes two to speak the truth, — one to…
- Fire is the most tolerable third party. - View Quote Details on Fire is the most tolerable third party.
- Go where we will on the surface of things, men have been there before us. - View Quote Details on Go where we will on the surface of things, men…
- How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live. - View Quote Details on How vain it is to sit down to write when…
- 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…
- Among American writers Thoreau was the pioneer of nature-study. Audubon had preceded him but he worked mainly with the brush; to multitudes Thoreau opened the gate to the secrets of our natural environment. The subtle delicacy of the grass-blade, the crystals of the snowflake, the icicle, the marvel of the weird lines traced by the flocks of wild geese athwart the heavens as they migrated, these he watched and recorded with loving accuracy and sensitive poetic feeling as no one in our land before had done. I have thrown a stone upon the cairn at Walden Pond which has now grown so high through the tributes of his grateful admirers. I shall throw still others in grateful admiration if the opportunity comes to me. - View Quote Details on Among American writers Thoreau was the pioneer of nature-study. Audubon…
- Truth, Goodness, Beauty — those celestial thrins,
Continually are born; e’en now the Universe,
With thousand throats, and eke with greener smiles,
Its joy confesses at their recent birth. - View Quote Details on Truth, Goodness, Beauty — those celestial thrins,
Continually are born; e’en… - No man with a genius for legislation has appeared in America. They are rare in the history of the world. There are orators, politicians, and eloquent men, by the thousand; but the speaker has not yet opened his mouth to speak who is capable of settling the much-vexed questions of the day. - View Quote Details on No man with a genius for legislation has appeared in…
- 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. - View Quote Details on Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract…













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