Henry David Thoreau Quotes on World (23 Quotes)

Morning brings back the heroic ages. There was something cosmical about it; a standing advertisement, till forbidden, of the everlasting vigor and fertility of the world. The morning, which is the most memorable season of the day, is the awakening hour. Then there is least somnolence in us; and for an hour, at least, some part of us awakes which slumbers all the rest of the day and night.

The surface of the earth is soft and impressible by the feet of men; and so with the paths which the mind travels. How worn and dusty, then, must be the highways of the world, how deep the ruts of tradition and conformity! I did not wish to take a cabin passage, but rather to go before the mast and on the deck of the world, for there I could best see the moonlight amid the mountains.

The government of the world I live in was not framed, like that of Britain, in after-dinner conversations over the wine.

How novel and original must be each new mans view of the universe for though the world is so old so many books have been written each object appears wholly undescribed to our experience each field of thought wholly unexplored The whole world is an America, a New World.

I have seen how the foundations of the world are laid, and I have not the least doubt that it will stand a good while.

Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations.

On the death of a friend, we should consider that the fates through confidence have devolved on us the task of a double living, that we have henceforth to fulfill the promise of our friend's life also, in our own, to the world.

If I were confined to a corner of a garret all my days, like a spider, the world would be just as large to me while I had my thoughts about me.

In wildness is the preservation of the world.

What I have been preparing to say is this, in wildness is the preservation of the world ... Life consists of wildness. The most alive is the wildest. Not yet subdued by man, its presence refreshes him.... When I would re-create myself, I seek the darkest wood, the thickest and most interminable and to the citizen, most dismal, swamp. I enter as a sacred place, a Sanctum sanctorum. There is the strength, the marrow, of Nature. In short, all good things are wild and free.

Live your beliefs and you can turn the world around.

It is not worth while to go around the world to count the cats in Zanzibar.

Nations What are nations Tartars and Huns and Chinamen Like insects they swarm. The historian strives in vain to make them memorable. It is for want of a man that there are so many men. It is individuals that populate the world.

There is an incessant influx of novelty into the world, and yet we tolerate incredible dullness.

I did not wish to take a cabin passage, but rather to go before the mast and on the deck of the world, for there I could best see the moonlight amid the mountains. I do not wish to go below now.

I came into this world, not cheifly to make this a good place to live in, but live in it, be it good or bad. A man has not everything to do, but something and because he can not do everything, it is not necessary that he should do something wrong.

In wilderness is the preservation of the world.

I would give all the wealth of the world, and all the deeds of all the heroes, for one true vision.

When I hear a grown man or woman say, 'Once I had faith in men, now I have not,' I am inclined to ask, 'Who are you whom the world has disappointed Have not you rather disappointed the world'

There are continents and seas in the moral world, to which every man is an isthmus or inlet, yet unexplored by him.

The world is but a canvas to the imagination.

This world is but a canvas to our imagination.

There are old heads in the world who cannot help me by their example or advice to live worthily and satisfactorily to myself; but I believe that it is in my power to elevate myself this very hour above the common level of my life.