Henry David Thoreau Philosophical Quotes

Writer, Philosopher

Philosophical

“The earth I tread on is not a dead inert mass. It is a body, has a spirit; is organic and fluid to the influence of its spirit and to whatever particle of the spirit is in me.”

Body Earth Spirit

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Henry David Thoreau

Writer, Philosopher

Philosophical

“The life in us is like the water in the river. It may rise this year higher than man has ever known it, and flood the parched uplands; even this may be the eventful year, which will drown out all our muskrats. It was not always dry land where we dwell. I see far inland the banks where the stream anciently washed, before science began to record its freshets.”

Men Years Land

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Philosophical

“Severe truth is expressed with some bitterness.”

Truth Bitterness

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Philosophical

“The light which puts out our eyes is darkness to us.”

Eye Light

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Philosophical

“The stars are the jewels of the night, and perchance surpass anything which day has to show. A companion with whom I was sailing one very windy but bright moonlight night, when the stars were few and faint, thought that a man could get along with them,-though he was considerably reduced in his circumstances,-that they were a kind of bread and cheese that never failed.”

Men Night Stars

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Philosophical

“Events, circumstances, etc., have their origin in ourselves. They spring from seeds which we have sown.”

Spring Events Etc

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Philosophical

“If within the sophisticated man there is not an unsophisticated one, then he is but one of the devil's angels.”

Men Angel Experience

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Philosophical

“It is reasonable that a man should be something worthier at the end of the year than he was at the beginning.”

Men Years Ends

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Philosophical

“Whether he sleeps or wakes,--whether he runs or walks,--whether he uses a microscope or a telescope, or his naked eye,--a man never discovers anything, never overtakes anything, or leaves anything behind, but himself. Whatever he says or does, he merely reports himself. If he is in love, he loves; if he is in heaven, he enjoys; if he is in hell, he suffers. It is his condition that determines his locality.”

Running Eye Sleep

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Philosophical

“Even voting for the right is doing nothing for it. It is only expressing to men feebly your desire that it should prevail. A wise man will not leave the right to the mercy of chance, nor wish it to prevail through the power of the majority. There is but little virtue in the action of masses of men.”

Men Wise Voting

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Philosophical

“We rarely meet a man who can tell us any news which he has not read in a newspaper, or been told by his neighbor; and, for the most part, the only difference between us and our fellow is that he has seen the newspaper, or been out to tea, and we have not.”

Men Differences Tea

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Philosophical

“I do not value any view of the universe into which man and the institutions of man enter very largely and absorb much of the attention. Man is but the place where I stand, and the prospect hence is infinite.”

Men Views Attention

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Henry David Thoreau — Philosophical Quotes

Henry David Thoreau Quotes