As I stand over the insect crawling amid the pine needles on the forest floor, and endeavoring to conceal itself from my sight, and ask myself why it will cherish those humble thoughts, and hide its head from me who might, perhaps, be its benefactor, and impart to its race some cheering information, I am reminded of the greater Benefactor and Intelligence that stands over me the human insect.
Henry David ThoreauThe world, which the Greeks called Beauty, has been made such by being gradually divested of every ornament which was not fitted to endure.
Henry David ThoreauOur inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end.
Henry David ThoreauI know very well what Goethe meant when he said that he never had a chagrin but he made a poem out of it. I have altogether too much patience of this kind.
Henry David ThoreauI was not born to be forced. I will breathe after my own fashion. Let us see who is the strongest. What force has a multitude? They can only force me who obey a higher law than I.... I do not hear of men being forced to live this way or that by masses of men. What sort of life were that to live?
Henry David Thoreau