The title wise is, for the most part, falsely applied…

The title wise is, for the most part, falsely applied. How can one be a wise man, if he does not know any better how to live than other men? — if he is only more cunning and intellectually subtle?

Sourced, Life Without Principle
(1863)

Other Henry David Thoreau Quotes

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  • The progress from an absolute to a limited monarchy, from a limited monarchy to a democracy, is a progress toward a true respect for the individual. - View Quote Details on The progress from an absolute to a limited monarchy, from…
  • Talk of mysteries! — Think of our life in nature, — daily to be shown matter, to come in contact with it, — rocks, trees, wind on our cheeks! The solid earth! the actual world! the common sense! Contact! Contact! Who are we? where are we? - View Quote Details on Talk of mysteries! — Think of our life in nature,…
  • 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…
  • A poem is one undivided unimpeded expression fallen ripe into literature, and it is undividedly and unimpededly received by those for whom it was matured. - View Quote Details on A poem is one undivided unimpeded expression fallen ripe into…
  • Howitt says of the man who found the great nugget which weighed twenty-eight pounds, at the Bendigo diggings in Australia: — “He soon began to drink; got a horse, and rode all about, generally at full gallop, and, when he met people, called out to inquire if they knew who he was, and then kindly informed them that he was ‘the bloody wretch that had found the nugget.’ At last he rode full speed against a tree, and nearly knocked his brains out.” I think, however, there was no danger of that, for he had already knocked his brains out against the nugget. - View Quote Details on Howitt says of the man who found the great nugget…
  • If you can speak what you will never hear, if you can write what you will never read, you have done rare things. - View Quote Details on If you can speak what you will never hear, if…
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