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Quotes from Journals — Henry David Thoreau

1817–1862 United States

← All quotes by Henry David Thoreau

41 quotes

Nature is full of genius, full of the divinity; so that not a snowflake escapes its fashioning hand.

Journals (1838)

Nothing is so much to be feared as fear. Atheism may comparatively be popular with God himself.

Journals (1838)

For many years I was self-appointed inspector of snowstorms and rainstorms, and did my duty faithfully, though I never received one cent for it.

Journals (1838)

Any fool can make a rule
And every fool will mind it.

Journals (1838)

The bluebird carries the sky on his back.

Journals (1838)

Poetry — No definition of poetry is adequate unless it be poetry itself.

Journals (1838)

That man is the richest whose pleasures are the cheapest.

Journals (1838)

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.

Journals (1838)

How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.

Journals (1838)

It is in vain to dream of a wildness distant from ourselves.

Journals (1838)

The savage in man is never quite eradicated.

Journals (1838)

A slight sound at evening lifts me up by the ears, and makes life seem inexpressibly serene and grand. It may be Uranus, or it may be in the shutter.

Journals (1838)

Who looks in the sun will see no light else; but also he will see no shadow. Our life revolves unceasingly, but the centre is ever the same, and the wise will regard only the seasons of the soul.

Journals (1838)

And the cost of a thing it will be remembered as the amount of life it requires to be exchanged for it.

Journals (1838)

Every poet has trembled on the verge of science.

Journals (1838)

Some circumstantial evidence is very strong, as when you find a trout in the milk.

Journals (1838)

Have no mean hours, but be grateful for every hour, and accept what it brings. The reality will make any sincere record respectable.

Journals (1838)

An early morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.

Journals (1838)

The perception of beauty is a moral test.

Journals (1838)

That virtue we appreciate is as much ours as another's. We see so much only as we possess.

Journals (1838)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Henry David Thoreau (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.