The frontiers are not east or west, north or south,…

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.

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

Other Henry David Thoreau Quotes

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…
Life consists with wildness. The most alive is the wildest. Not yet subdued to man, its presence refreshes him. - View Quote Details on Life consists with wildness. The most alive is the wildest…
In wildness is the preservation of the world. - View Quote Details on In wildness is the preservation of the world.
Any fool can make a rule
And any fool will mind it. - View Quote Details on Any fool can make a rule
And any fool will mind…
It was his peculiar doctrine that a man has a perfect right to interfere by force with the slaveholder, in order to rescue the slave. I agree with him. They who are continually shocked by slavery have some right to be shocked by the violent death of the slaveholder, but no others. - View Quote Details on It was his peculiar doctrine that a man has a…
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…
Have you learned the alphabet of heaven and can count three? Do you know the number of God’s family? Can you put mysteries into words? Do you presume to fable of the ineffable? Pray, what geographer are you, that speak of heaven’s topography? Whose friend are you that speak of God’s personality?… Tell me of the height of the mountains of the moon, or of the diameter of space, and I may believe you, but of the secret history of the Almighty, and I shall pronounce thee mad. - View Quote Details on Have you learned the alphabet of heaven and can count…
I hardly know an intellectual man, even, who is so broad and truly liberal that you can think aloud in his society. Most with whom you endeavor to talk soon come to a stand against some institution in which they appear to hold stock, — that is, some particular, not universal, way of viewing things. - View Quote Details on I hardly know an intellectual man, even, who is so…
For eighteen hundred years, though perchance I have no right to say it, the New Testament has been written; yet where is the legislator who has wisdom and practical talent enough to avail himself of the light which it sheds on the science of legislation? - View Quote Details on For eighteen hundred years, though perchance I have no right…
I think his fancy for referring everything to the meridian of Concord did not grow out of any ignorance or depreciation of other longitudes or latitudes, but was rather a playful expression of his conviction of the indifferency of all places, and that the best place for each is where he stands. He expressed it once in this wise: — “I think nothing is to be hoped from you, if this bit of mould under your feet is not sweeter to you to eat than any other in this world, or in any world.” - View Quote Details on I think his fancy for referring everything to the meridian…