Henry David Thoreau Quotations: OBSERVATIONS
If men were to be destroyed and the books they have written were to be transmitted to a new race of creatures, in a new world, what kind of record would be found in them of so remarkable a phenomenon as the rainbow?—Journal, 13 March 1859
If the meadows were untouched, I should no doubt see many more of the rare white and the beautiful smaller purple orchids there, as I now see a few along the shaded brooks and meadow's edge.—Journal, 29 July 1853
If we can forget, we have done somewhat; if we can remember, we have done somewhat. Let us remember this.—Journal, 7 July 1845
If we can listen we shall hear.—Journal, 26 January 1841
In a pleasant spring morning all men's sins are forgiven.—Walden
In Boston yesterday an ornithologist said significantly, “If you held the bird in your hand—”; but I would rather hold it in my affections.—Journal, 10 May 1854
In music are the centripetal and centrifugal forces. The universe needed only to hear a divine harmony that every star might fall into its proper place and assume a true sphericity.—Journal, 3 July 1840
In my short experience of human life I have found that the outward obstacles which stood in my way were not living men but dead institutions.—Journal, 20 June 1846
In reality, history fluctuates as the face of the landscape from morning to evening. What is of moment is its hue and color. Time hides no treasures; we want not its then, but its now. We do not complain that the mountains in the horizon are blue and indistinct; they are the more like the heavens.—A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
In summer it is the earth's liquid eye, a mirror in the breast of nature.—"A Winter Walk"
