Henry David Thoreau Quotations: OBSERVATIONS
It is generally conceded that a man does not look the worse for a somewhat dilapidated hat.—Journal, 25 December 1859
It is highly important to invent a dress which will enable us to be abroad with impunity in the severest storms. We cannot be said to have fully invented clothing yet.—Journal, 22 April 1856
It is in vain to dream of a wildness distant from ourselves. There is none such.—Journal, 30 August 1856
It is remarkable that no pains is taken to teach children to distinguish colors. I am myself uncertain about the names of many.—Journal, 28 January 1852
It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and the medium through which we look, which morally we can do. To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.—Walden
It takes two to speak the truth,—one to speak, and another to hear.—A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
It was such a light as we could not have imagined a moment before, and the air was also so warm and serene that nothing was wanting to make a paradise of that meadow. When we reflected that this was not a solitary phenomenon, never to happen again, but that it would happen forever and ever an infinite number of evenings, and cheer and reassure the latest child that walked there, it was more glorious still.—"Walking"
It was summer, and now again it is winter. Nature loves this rhyme so well that she never tires of repeating it.—Journal, 7 December 1856
It will have some red stains, commemorating the mornings and evening it has witnessed; some dark and rusty blotches, in memory of the clouds and foggy, mildewy days that have passed over it; and a spacious field of green reflecting the general face of Nature,—green even as the fields; or a yellow ground, which implies a milder flavor,—yellow as the harvest, or russet as the hills.—"Wild Apples"
