Poetry is the mysticism of mankind.
Poetry is the mysticism of mankind.
Sourced, A Week on the Concord and Marrimack Rivers
(1849)
(1849)
Other Henry David Thoreau Quotes
- 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,…
- We are apt to imagine that this hubbub of Philosophy, Literature, and Religion, which is heard in pulpits, lyceums, and parlors, vibrates through the universe, and is as catholic a sound as the creaking of the earth’s axle. But if a man sleeps soundly, he will forget it all between sunset and dawn. - View Quote Details on We are apt to imagine that this hubbub of Philosophy,…
- I speak for the slave when I say that I prefer the philanthropy of Captain Brown to that philanthropy which neither shoots me nor liberates me. - View Quote Details on I speak for the slave when I say that I…
- The vessel, though her masts be firm,
Beneath her copper bears a worm. - View Quote Details on The vessel, though her masts be firm,
Beneath her copper bears… - Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it. - View Quote Details on Success usually comes to those who are too busy to…
- I will not talk about people a thousand miles off, but come as near home as I can. As the time is short, I will leave out all the flattery, and retain all the criticism.
Let us consider the way in which we spend our lives. - View Quote Details on I will not talk about people a thousand miles off,… - Any man more right than his neighbors constitutes a majority of one. - View Quote Details on Any man more right than his neighbors constitutes a majority…
- A slight sound at evening lifts me up by the ears, and makes life seem inexpressibly serene and grand. It may be Uranus, or it may be in the shutter. - View Quote Details on A slight sound at evening lifts me up by the…
- 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. - View Quote Details on My books I’d fain cast off, I cannot read,
‘Twixt every… - Read not the Times. Read the Eternities. Conventionalities are at length as bad as impurities. Even the facts of science may dust the mind by their dryness, unless they are in a sense effaced each morning, or rather rendered fertile by the dews of fresh and living truth. Knowledge does not come to us by details, but in flashes of light from heaven. Yes, every thought that passes through the mind helps to wear and tear it, and to deepen the ruts, which, as in the streets of Pompeii, evince how much it has been used. How many things there are concerning which we might well deliberate, whether we had better know them, — had better let their peddling-carts be driven, even at the slowest trot or walk, over that bridge of glorious span by which we trust to pass at last from the farthest brink of time to the nearest shore of eternity! Have we no culture, no refinement, — but skill only to live coarsely and serve the Devil? — to acquire a little worldly wealth, or fame, or liberty, and make a false show with it, as if we were all husk and shell, with no tender and living kernel to us? Shall our institutions be like those chestnut-burs which contain abortive nuts, perfect only to prick the fingers? - View Quote Details on Read not the Times. Read the Eternities. Conventionalities are at…
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