Henry David Thoreau Quotations: HUMANKIND
Men will pay something to look into a travelling showman's box but not to look upon the fairest prospects on the earth.—Journal, 25 May 1851
Methinks it would be some advantage to philosophy if men were named merely in the gross, as they are known. It would be necessary only to know the genus and perhaps the race or variety, to know the individual.—"Natural History of Massachusetts"
Most things are strong in one direction, a straw longitudinally, a board in the direction of its edge, but he brave man is a perfect sphere, which cannot fall on its flat side and is equally strong every way.—"The Service"
My genius makes distinctions which my understanding can not and which my senses do not report.—Journal, 23 July 1851
Nature has left nothing to the mercy of man.—Journal, 22 March 1861
Nature is full of genius, full of the divinity.—Journal, 5 January 1856
No man ever followed his genius till it misled him—Walden
No man ever stood the lower in my estimation for having a patch in his clothes.—Walden
Not to grieve long for any action, but to go immediately and do freshly and otherwise, subtracts so much from the wrong.—Journal, 9 January 1842
Nothing is so attractive and unceasingly curious as character. There is no plant that needs such tender treatment, there is none that will endure so rough. It is the violet and the oak.—Journal, 30 November 1841
