A man’s interest in a single bluebird is worth more than a complete but dry list of the fauna and flora of a town. – Henry David Thoreau
If the machine of government is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law. – Henry David Thoreau
It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about? – Henry David Thoreau
Where there is an observatory and a telescope, we expect that any eyes will see new worlds at once. – Henry David Thoreau
I have thought there was some advantage even in death, by which we mingle with the herd of common men. – Henry David Thoreau
If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them. – Henry David Thoreau
How does it become a man to behave towards the American government today? I answer, that he cannot without disgrace be associated with it. – Henry David Thoreau
I did not wish to take a cabin passage, but rather to go before the mast and on the deck of the world, for there I could best see the moonlight amid the mountains. I do not wish to go below now. – Henry David Thoreau
Books are to be distinguished by the grandeur of their topics even more than by the manner in which they are treated. – Henry David Thoreau
It is too late to be studying Hebrew; it is more important to understand even the slang of today. – Henry David Thoreau
I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion. – Henry David Thoreau
Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance; they make the latitudes and longitudes. – Henry David Thoreau
I have seen how the foundations of the world are laid, and I have not the least doubt that it will stand a good while. – Henry David Thoreau
To be admitted to Nature’s hearth costs nothing. None is excluded, but excludes himself. You have only to push aside the curtain. – Henry David Thoreau
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. – Henry David Thoreau
There are moments when all anxiety and stated toil are becalmed in the infinite leisure and repose of nature. – Henry David Thoreau