Henry David Thoreau Quotations: OBSERVATIONS
The beauty of the earth answers exactly to your demand and appreciation.—Journal, 2 November 1858
The chief recommendation of the Kossuth has is that it looks old to start with, and almost as good as new to end with.—Journal, 25 December 1859
The discoveries which we make abroad are special and particular; those which we make at home are general and significant. The further off, the nearer the surface. The nearer home, the deeper.—Journal, 7 September 1851
The first pleasant days of spring come out like a squirrel and go in again.—Journal, 7 March 1855
The focus of their reflected color is in the atmosphere far on this side. Every such tree becomes a nucleus of red, as it were, where, with the declining sun, that color grows and glows. It is partly borrowed fire, gathering strength from the sun on its way to your eye.—"Autumnal Tints"
The forest looked like a firm grass sward, and the effect of these lakes in its midst has been well compared, by one who has since visited this same spot, to that of a "mirror broken into a thousand fragments, and wildly scattered over the grass, reflecting the full blaze of the sun."—The Maine Woods
The land seemed to grow fairer as we withdrew from it.—A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
The language of friendship is not words but meanings. It is an intelligence above language.—A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
The man I meet with is not often so instructive as the silence he breaks.—Journal, 7 January 1857
The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation.—Walden
