The farmer increases the extent of habitable earth. He makes soil. That is an honorable occupation.
—Journal, 2 March 1852The filling up of a swamp, then, in this case at least, is not the result of a deposition of vegetable matter washed into it, settling to the bottom and leaving the surface clear, so filling it up from the bottom to the top . . .
—Journal, 1 February 1858The finest manners in the world are awkwardness and fatality when contrasted with a finer intelligence.
—Journal, 16 February 1851The first pleasant days of spring come out like a squirrel and go in again.
—Journal, 7 March 1855The focus of their reflected color is in the atmosphere far on this side. Every such tree becomes a nucleus of red, as it were, where, with the declining sun, that color grows and glows. It is partly borrowed fire, gathering strength from the sun on its way to your eye.
—"Autumnal Tints"The forcible writer does not go far for his themes—his ideas are not far-fetched.
—Journal, 29 January 1852The forcible writer stands bodily behind his words with his experience. He does not make books out of books, but he has been there in person.
—Journal, 3 February 1852The forest looked like a firm grass sward, and the effect of these lakes in its midst has been well compared, by one who has since visited this same spot, to that of a “mirror broken into a thousand fragments, and wildly scattered over the grass, reflecting the full blaze of the sun.”
—The Maine WoodsThe grammarian is often one who can neither cry nor laugh, yet thinks that he can express human emotions. So the posture-masters tell you how you shall walk—turning your toes out, perhaps, excessively—but so the beautiful walkers are not made.
—Journal, 2 January 1859The great and solitary heart will love alone, without the knowledge of its object. It cannot have society in its love. It will expend its love as the cloud drops rain upon the fields over which [it] floats.
—Journal, 15 March 1842The great person never wants an opportunity to be great but makes occasion for all about him.
—Journal, 1 June 1841The greater part of what my neighbors call good I believe in my soul to be bad, and if I repent of anything it is very likely to be my good behavior.
—WaldenThe greatest impression of character is made by that person who Consents to have no character. He who sympathizes with and runs through the whole circle of attributes cannot afford to be an individual.
—Journal, 2 March 1842The ground under the snow has long since felt the influence of the spring sun, whose rays fall at a more favorable angle.
—Journal, 28 March 1856The hawk is the aerial brother of the wave which he sails over and surveys, those his perfect air-inflated wings answering to the elemental unfledged pinions of the sea.
—Walden