Truly, Nature absorbed his attention, but I don’t think he…

Truly, Nature absorbed his attention, but I don’t think he cared much for what is called the beauties of nature; it was her way of working, her mystery, her economy in extravagance; he delighted to trace her footsteps toward their source…. He liked to feel that the pursuit was endless, with mystery at both ends of it….

Quotes about Thoreau

Julian Hawthorne in The Memoirs of Julian Hawthorne (1938)

Other Henry David Thoreau Quotes

A very few, as heroes, patriots, martyrs, reformers in the great sense, and men, serve the State with their consciences also, and so necessarily resist it for the most part; and they are commonly treated by it as enemies. - View Quote Details on A very few, as heroes, patriots, martyrs, reformers in the…
While there are manners and compliments we do not meet, we do not teach one another the lessons of honesty and sincerity that the brutes do, or of steadiness and solidity that the rocks do. The fault is commonly mutual, however; for we do not habitually demand any more of each other. - View Quote Details on While there are manners and compliments we do not meet,…
That man is richest whose pleasures are the cheapest. - View Quote Details on That man is richest whose pleasures are the cheapest.
Poetry — No definition of poetry is adequate unless it be poetry itself. The most accurate analysis by the rarest wisdom is yet insufficient, and the poet will instantly prove it false by setting aside its requisitions. It is indeed all that we do not know. The poet does not need to see how meadows are something else than earth, grass, and water, but how they are thus much. He does not need discover that potato blows are as beautiful as violets, as the farmer thinks, but only how good potato blows are. The poem is drawn out from under the feet of the poet, his whole weight has rested on this ground. It has a logic more severe than the logician’s. You might as well think to go in pursuit of the rainbow, and embrace it on the next hill, as to embrace the whole of poetry even in thought. - View Quote Details on Poetry — No definition of poetry is adequate unless it…
One cannot too soon forget his errors and misdemeanors. To dwell long upon them is to add to the offense. Repentance and sorrow can only be displaced by something better, which is as free and original as if they had not been. - View Quote Details on One cannot too soon forget his errors and misdemeanors. To…
I take it for granted, when I am invited to lecture anywhere, — for I have had a little experience in that business, — that there is a desire to hear what I think on some subject, though I may be the greatest fool in the country, — and not that I should say pleasant things merely, or such as the audience will assent to; and I resolve, accordingly, that I will give them a strong dose of myself. They have sent for me, and engaged to pay for me, and I am determined that they shall have me, though I bore them beyond all precedent. - View Quote Details on I take it for granted, when I am invited to…
It is remarkable that among all the preachers there are so few moral teachers. The prophets are employed in excusing the ways of men. - View Quote Details on It is remarkable that among all the preachers there are…
The youth gets together his materials to build a bridge to the moon, or, perchance, a palace or temple on the earth, and, at length, the middle-aged man concludes to build a woodshed with them. - View Quote Details on The youth gets together his materials to build a bridge…
I did not know that mankind were suffering for want of gold. I have seen a little of it. I know that it is very malleable, but not so malleable as wit. A grain of gold will gild a great surface, but not so much as a grain of wisdom. - View Quote Details on I did not know that mankind were suffering for want…
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…