No way of thinking or doing, however ancient, can be trusted without proof. What everybody echoes or in silence passes by as true to-day may turn out to be falsehood to-morrow.
Henry David ThoreauI had a classmate who fitted for college by the lamps of a lighthouse, which was more light, we think, than the University afforded.
Henry David ThoreauWe live thick and are in each other's way, and stumble over one another, and I think we thus lose some respect for one another.
Henry David ThoreauThe fishermen say that the "thundering of the pond" scares the fishes and prevents their biting.
Henry David ThoreauIn 1694 a law was passed "that every settler who deserted a town for fear of the Indians should forfeit all his rights therein." But now, at any rate, as I have frequently observed, a man may desert the fertile frontier territories of truth and justice, which are the State's best lands, for fear of far more insignificant foes, without forfeiting any of his civil rights therein. Nay, townships are granted to deserters, and the General Court, as I am sometimes inclined to regard it, is but a deserters' camp itself.
Henry David Thoreau