Thoreau Quotes

Browse through our collection of quotes tagged with Thoreau.

Society is commonly too cheap. We meet at very short interva

Society is commonly too cheap. We meet at very short intervals, not having had time to acquire any new value for each other.We meet at meals three times a day, and give each other a new taste of that musty old cheese that we are. We have had to agree on a certain set of rules, called etiquette and politeness, to make this frequent meeting tolerable and that we need not come to open war. We meet at the post office, and at the sociable, and at the fireside every night; we live thick and are in each other's way, and stumble over one another, and I think that we thus lose some respect for one another.

Henry David Thoreau

Philosophy Solitude Social Introvert Walden Thoreau Antisocial Introversion

In any weather, at any hour of the day or night, I have been

In any weather, at any hour of the day or night, I have been anxious to improve the nick of time, and notch it on my stick too; to stand on the meeting of two eternities, the past and the future, which is precisely the present moment; to toe that line. You will pardon some obscurities, for there are more secrets in my trade than in most men's, and yet not voluntarily kept, but inseparable from its very nature.

Henry David Thoreau

Philosophy Present Walden Thoreau

Most of the luxuries and many of the so-called comforts of l

Most of the luxuries and many of the so-called comforts of life, are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind.

Henry David Thoreau

Poor Body Wise Thoreau Luxuries