Henry David Thoreau Quotations: RELIGION & PHILOSOPHY
Most men have no inclination, no rapids, no cascades, but marshes, and alligators, and miasma instead.—A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
Most men, it seems to me, do not care for Nature and would sell their share in all her beauty, as long as they may live, for a stated sum—many for a glass of rum. Thank God, men cannot as yet fly, and lay waste the sky as well as the earth!—Journal, 3 January 1861
Music soothes the din of philosophy and lightens incessantly over the heads of sages.—Journal, 23 June 1840
My desire for knowledge is intermittent, but my desire to bathe my head in atmospheres unknown to my feet is perennial and constant. The highest that we can attain to is not Knowledge, but Sympathy with Intelligence.—"Walking"
Nature is a greater and more perfect art, the art of God.—A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
Nature is full of genius, full of the divinity.—Journal, 5 January 1856
No wonder that Alexander carried the Iliad with him on his expeditions in a precious casket.—Walden
On every hand we observe a truly wise practice, in education, in morals, and in the arts of life, the embodied wisdom of many an ancient philosopher.—A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
On the death of a friend, we should consider that the fates through confidence have devolved on us the task of a double living, that we have hence forth to fulfill the promise of our friend's life also, in our own, to the world. —Journal, 28 February 1840
One music seems to differ from another chiefly in its more perfect time, to use this word in a true sense. In the steadiness and equanimity of music lies its divinity.—Journal, 8 January 1842
