“Sometimes, in a summer morning,having taken my accustomed bath, I sat in my sunny doorway from sunrisetill noon, rapt in a revery, amidst the pines and hickories and sumachs,in undisturbed solitude and stillness, while the birds sing around orflitted noiseless through the house, until by the sun falling in atmy west window, or the noise of some traveller's wagon on the distanthighway, I was reminded of the lapse of time. I grew in those seasonslike corn in the night, and they were far better than any work of thehands would have been. They were not time subtracted from my life, butso much over and above my usual allowance. I realized what the Orientalsmean by contemplation and the forsaking of works. For the most part, Iminded not how the hours went. The day advanced as if to light somework of mine; it was morning, and lo, now it is evening, and nothingmemorable is accomplished.”
Henry David Thoreau“There is no remedy for love but to love more."- Henry David Thoreau”
Henry David Thoreau“He who hears the rippling of rivers in these degenerate days will not utterly despair.”
Henry David Thoreau“This American government—what is it but a tradition, though a recent one, endeavoring to transmit itself unimpaired to posterity, but each instant losing some of its integrity? It has not the vitality and force of a single living man; for a single man can bend it to his will. It is a sort of wooden gun to the people themselves. But it is not the less necessary for this; for the people must have some complicated machinery or other, and hear its din, to satisfy that idea of government which they have. Governments show thus how successfully men can be imposed upon, even impose on themselves, for their own advantage. It is excellent, we must all allow. Yet this government never of itself furthered any enterprise, but by the alacrity with which it got out of its way.”
Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience“Read the best books first, otherwise you’ll find you do not have time. - Henry David Thoreau”
Leo Tolstoy, A Calendar of Wisdom: Daily Thoughts to Nourish the Soul“As in geology, so in social institutions, we may discover the causes of all past changes in the present invariable order of society.”
Henry David Thoreau“We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers. A man thinking or working is always alone, let him be where he will.”
Henry David Thoreau“A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone.”
Henry David Thoreau“The man who goes alone can start today but he who travels with another must wait till that other is ready. ”
Henry David Thoreau“Things do not change we change. ”
Henry David Thoreau“If you would convince a man that he does wrong, do right. Men will believe what they see.”
Henry David Thoreau