I would remind my countrymen that they are to be men first, and Americans only at a late and convenient hour.
Henry David ThoreauThe animal merely makes a bed, which he warms with his body, in a sheltered place; but man, having discovered fire, boxes up someair in a spacious apartment, and warms that.... Thus he goes a step or two beyond instinct, and saves a little time for the fine arts.
Henry David ThoreauThe nonchalance and dolce-far-niente air of nature and society hint at infinite periods in the progress of mankind.
Henry David ThoreauThe philanthropist too often surrounds mankind with the remembrance of his own cast- off griefs as an atmosphere, and calls it sympathy. We should impart our courage, and not our despair, our health and ease, and not our disease, and take care that this does not spread by contagion.
Henry David Thoreau