The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when…

The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked me what I thought, and attended to my answer. I am surprised, as well as delighted, when this happens, it is such a rare use he would make of me, as if he were acquainted with the tool.

Sourced, Life Without Principle
(1863)

Other Henry David Thoreau Quotes

Of what significance the things you can forget? A little thought is sexton to all the world. - View Quote Details on Of what significance the things you can forget? A little…
Have no mean hours, but be grateful for every hour, and accept what it brings. The reality will make any sincere record respectable. No day will have been wholly misspent, if one sincere, thoughtful page has been written. Let the daily tide leave some deposit on these pages, as it leaves sand and shells on the shore. So much increase of terra firma. this may be a calendar of the ebbs and flows of the soul; and on these sheets as a beach, the waves may cast up pearls and seaweed. - View Quote Details on Have no mean hours, but be grateful for every hour,…
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…
He would have left a Greek accent slanting the wrong way, and righted up a falling man. - View Quote Details on He would have left a Greek accent slanting the wrong…
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…
…men remain in their present low and primitive condition; but if they should feel the influence of the spring of springs arousing them, they would of necessity rise to a higher and more ethereal life. - View Quote Details on …men remain in their present low and primitive condition; but…
The savage in man is never quite eradicated. - View Quote Details on The savage in man is never quite eradicated.
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…
How does it become a man to behave toward this American government today? I answered that he cannot without disgrace be associated with it. - View Quote Details on How does it become a man to behave toward this…
The perception of beauty is a moral test. - View Quote Details on The perception of beauty is a moral test.