I desire that there be as many different persons in the world as possible; I would have each one be very careful to find out and preserve his own way.
Henry David ThoreauWe are not what we are, nor do we treat or esteem each other for such, but for what we are capable of being.
Henry David ThoreauIt is an interesting question how far men would retain their relative rank if they were divested of their clothes.
Henry David ThoreauI fear that we are such gods or demigods only as fauns and satyrs, the divine allied to beasts, the creatures of appetite, and that, to some extent, our very life is our disgrace.
Henry David ThoreauUnder the one word "house" are included the schoolhouse, the almshouse, the jail, the tavern, the dwellinghouse; and the meanest shed or cave in which men live contains elements of all these. But nowhere on the earth stands the entire and perfect house.
Henry David ThoreauWho knows what beautiful and winged life, whose egg has been buried for ages under many concretic layers of woodenness in the dead dry life of society...may unexpectedly come forth...to enjoy its perfect summer life at last!...Such is the character of that morrow which mere lapse of time can never make to dawn...Only that day dawns to which we are awake. There is more day to dawn. The sun is but a morning star.
Henry David Thoreau