Our whole life is startlingly moral. There is never an instant's truce between virtue and vice.
Henry David ThoreauThere may be something petty in a refined taste; it easily degenerates into effeminacy. It does not consider the broadest use. It is not content with simple good and bad, and so is fastidious and curious or nice only.
Henry David ThoreauI learned to regard man as an inhabitant, or a part and parcel of nature, rather than a member of society.
Henry David ThoreauI have seen some who did not know when to turn aside their eyes in meeting yours. A truly confident and magnanimous spirit is wiser than to contend for the mastery in such encounters. Serpents alone conquer by the steadiness of their gaze. My friend looks me in the face and sees me, that is all.
Henry David Thoreau