Henry David Thoreau Quotations: LIFE
The obstacles which the heart meets with are like granite blocks which one alone can not move.—Journal, 27 October 1851
The poet deals with his privatest experience.—Journal, 8 April 1854
The present is the instant work and near process of living, and will be found in the last analysis to be nothing more nor less than digestion. Sometimes, it is true, it is indigestion.—Journal, after 21 October 1842
The sad memory of departed friends is soon incrusted over with sublime and pleasing thoughts, as their monuments are overgrown with moss. Nature doth thus kindly heal every wound.—Journal, 13 March 1842
The student who secures his coveted leisure and retirement by systematically shirking any labor necessary to man obtains but an ignoble and unprofitable leisure, defrauding himself of the experience which alone can make leisure fruitful.—Walden
The sum of what the writer of what ever class has to report is simply some human experience, whether he be poet or philosopher or man of science.—Journal, 6 May 1854
The true student will cleave ever to the good, recognizing no Past, no Present; but wherever he emerges from the bosom of time, his course is not with the sun,—eastward or westward,—but ever towards the seashore.—Journal, 15 February 1838
The unwise are accustomed to speak as if some were not sick; but methinks the different between men in respect to health is not great enough to lay much stress upon.—A Week on the Concord and Merrimack RiversÂ
The value of any experience is measured, of course, not by the amount of money, but the amount of development we get out of it.—Journal, 26 November 1860
The weight of present woe will express the sweetness of past experiences.—Journal, 3 April 1842
