Henry David Thoreau Quotations: OBSERVATIONS
So is all change for the better, like birth and death which convulse the body.—"Resistance to Civil Government"
So vivacious is redness. The very rails reflect a rosy light at this hour and season. You see a redder tree than exists.—"Autumnal Tints"
Some consider blue "to be the color of pure water, whether liquid or solid." But, looking directly down into our waters from a boat, they are seen to be of very different colors. Walden is blue at one time and green at another, even from the same point of view. Lying between the earth and the heavens, it partakes of the color of both.—Walden
Some love beauty, and some love rum.—Journal, 22 January 1859
Some men endeavor to live a constrained life, to subject their whole lives to their wills, as he who said he would give a sign if he were conscious after his head was cut off,—but he gave no sign. Dwell as near as possible to the channel in which your life flows.—Journal, 12 March 1853
Some trees, as small Hickories, appear to have dropped their leaves instantaneously, as a soldier grounds arms at a signal; and those of the Hickory, being bright yellow still, though withered, reflect a blaze of light from the ground where they lie.—"Autumnal Tints"
Standing at the right angle, we are dazzled by the colors of the rainbow in colorless ice.—Journal, 11 December 1855
Standing quite alone, far in the forest, while the wind is shaking down snow from the trees, and leaving the only human tracks behind us, we find our reflections of a richer variety than the life of cities.—"A Winter Walk"
That virtue we appreciate is as much ours as another's. We see so much only as we possess.—Journal, 22 June 1839
The Artist is he who detects and applies the law from observation of the works of Genius, whether of man or nature.—A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
