I could not undertake to form a nucleus of an institution for the development of infant minds, where none already existed. It would be too cruel.
Henry David ThoreauGovernment never furthered any enterprise but by the alacrity with which it got out of its way.
Henry David ThoreauThe highest that we can attain to is not Knowledge, but Sympathy with Intelligence.
Henry David ThoreauBoth place and time were changed, and I dwelt nearer to those parts of the universe and to those eras in history which had most attracted me.
Henry David ThoreauCast your whole vote, not a strip of paper merely, but your whole influence. A minority is powerless while it conforms to the majority; it is not even a minority then; but it is irresistible when it clogs by its whole weight.... If a thousand men were not to pay their tax-bills this year, that would not be a violent and bloody measure, as it would be to pay them, and enable the State to commit violence and shed innocent blood. This is, in fact, the definition of a peaceable revolution, if any such is possible.
Henry David Thoreau