Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract…

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.

Sourced, Walden
(1854)

Other Henry David Thoreau Quotes

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With respect to a true culture and manhood, we are essentially provincial still, not metropolitan, — mere Jonathans. We are provincial, because we do not find at home our standards, — because we do not worship truth, but the reflection of truth, — because we are warped and narrowed by an exclusive devotion to trade and commerce and manufactures and agriculture and the like, which are but means, and not the end. - View Quote Details on With respect to a true culture and manhood, we are…
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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…