Henry David Thoreau Ages Quotations

The civilized man is a more experienced and wiser savage.

Mine was, as it were, the connecting link between wild and cultivated fields; as some states are civilized, and others half-civilized, and others savage or barbarous, so my field was, though not in a bad sense, a half-cultivated field. They were beans cheerfully returning to their wild and primitive state that I cultivated, and my hoe played the Ranz des Vaches for them.

In the love of narrow souls I make many short voyages but in vain - I find no sea room - but in great souls I sail before the wind without a watch, and never reach the shore.

Let us consider under what disadvantages Science has hitherto labored before we pronounce thus confidently on her progress.

If the laborer gets no more than the wages which his employer pays him, he is cheated, he cheats himself.

In winter we lead a more inward life. Our hearts are warm and cheery, like cottages under drifts...

Most men would feel insulted if it were proposed to employ them in throwing stones over a wall, and then in throwing them back, merely that they might earn their wages. But many are no more worthily employed now.