The scholar is not apt to make his most familiar experience come gracefully to the aid of his expression.
Henry David ThoreauGenius is a light which makes the darkness visible, like the lightning's flash, which perchance shatters the temple of knowledge itself.
Henry David ThoreauIt must be confessed that horses at present work too exclusively for men, rarely men for horses; and the brute degenerates in man's society.
Henry David ThoreauNo human being, past the thoughtless age of boyhood, will wantonly murder any creature which holds its life by the same tenure that he does.
Henry David ThoreauIn war, in some sense, lies the very genius of law. It is law creative and active; it is the first principle of the law. What is human warfare but just this, - an effort to make the laws of God and nature take sides with one party. Men make an arbitrary code, and, because it is not right, they try to make it prevail by might. The moral law does not want any champion. Its asserters do not go to war. It was never infringed with impunity. It is inconsistent to decry war and maintain law, for if there were no need of war there would be no need of law.
Henry David Thoreau