The Jesuits were quite balked by those Indians who, being burned at the stake, suggested new modes of tortures to their tormentors. Being superior to physical suffering, it sometimes chanced that they were superior to any consolation which the missionaries could offer; and the law to do as you would be done by fell with less persuasiveness on the ears of those who, for their part, did not care how they were done by, who loved their enemies after a new fashion, and came very near freely forgiving them all they did.
Henry David ThoreauIt is said that a rogue does not look you in the face, neither does an honest man look at you as if he had his reputation to establish.
Henry David ThoreauI do not value any view of the universe into which man and the institutions of man enter very largely and absorb much of the attention. Man is but the place where I stand, and the prospect hence is infinite.
Henry David ThoreauDo what you love. Know your own bone; gnaw at it, bury it, unearth it, and gnaw it still.
Henry David ThoreauNo doubt another may also think for me; but it is not therefore desirable that he should do so to the exclusion of my thinking for myself.
Henry David ThoreauEach reader discovers for himself that, with respect to the simpler features of nature, succeeding poets have done little else than copy his similes.
Henry David ThoreauNo: until I want the protection of Massachusetts to be extended to me in some distant Southern port, where my liberty is endangered, or until I am bent solely on building up an estate at home by peaceful enterprise, I can afford to refuse allegiance to Massachusetts, and her right to my property and life. It costs me less in every sense to incur the penalty of disobedience to the State than it would to obey. I should feel as if I were worth less in that case.
Henry David Thoreau