It is one of the signs of the times. We confess that we have risen from reading this book with enlarged ideas, and grander conceptions of our duties in this world. It did expand us a little.
Henry David ThoreauWhat recommends commerce to me is its enterprise and bravery. It does not clasp its hands and pray to Jupiter.
Henry David ThoreauBut, on more accounts than one, I had had enough of moose-hunting. I had not come to the woods for this purpose, nor had I foreseen it, though I had been willing to learn how the Indian manvred; but one moose killed was as good, if not as bad, as a dozen.
Henry David ThoreauIn ancient days the Pythagoreans were used to change names with each other,--fancying that each would share the virtues they admired in the other.
Henry David ThoreauWe should endeavor practically in our lives to correct all the defects which our imagination detects.
Henry David ThoreauThe deeds of love are less questionable than any action of an individual can be, for, it being founded on the rarest mutual respect, the parties incessantly stimulate each other to a loftier and purer life, and the act in which they are associated must be pure and noble indeed, for innocence and purity can have no equal. In this relation we deal with one whom we respect more religiously even than we respect our better selves, and we shall necessarily conduct as in the presence of God. What presence can be more awful to the lover than the presence of his beloved?
Henry David Thoreau