Asked whether or not he believed in an afterlife, Thoreau quipped, "One world at a time."
Henry David ThoreauA man may grow rich in Turkey even, if he will be in all respects a good subject of the Turkish government.
Henry David ThoreauThe effect of a good government is to make life more valuable; of a bad one, to make it less valuable.
Henry David ThoreauIf you would get money as a writer or lecturer, you must be popular, which is to go down perpendicularly.... You are paid for being something less than a man. The state does not commonly reward a genius any more wisely. Even the poet laureate would rather not have to celebrate the accidents of royalty. He must be bribed with a pipe of wine; and perhaps another poet is called away from his muse to gauge that very pipe.
Henry David Thoreau