The Writings of Henry David Thoreau: With Bibliographical Introductions and Full Indexes. In Ten Volumes, Volume 10Houghton, Mifflin, 1893 |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 35
Page 4
... least hint of squalor or inelegance . Perhaps he fell into his way of living without forecasting it much , but approved it with later wisdom . " I am often reminded , " he wrote in his journal , " that , if I had bestowed on me the ...
... least hint of squalor or inelegance . Perhaps he fell into his way of living without forecasting it much , but approved it with later wisdom . " I am often reminded , " he wrote in his journal , " that , if I had bestowed on me the ...
Page 8
... least , is not based on any Roman ruins . We have not to lay the founda- tions of our houses on the ashes of a former civilization . " But , idealist as he was , standing for abolition of slavery , abolition of tariffs , almost for abo ...
... least , is not based on any Roman ruins . We have not to lay the founda- tions of our houses on the ashes of a former civilization . " But , idealist as he was , standing for abolition of slavery , abolition of tariffs , almost for abo ...
Page 32
... least part , how great a son it has lost . It seems an injury that he should leave in the midst his broken task , which none else can finish , a kind of indignity to so noble a soul , that it should depart out of Nature before yet he ...
... least part , how great a son it has lost . It seems an injury that he should leave in the midst his broken task , which none else can finish , a kind of indignity to so noble a soul , that it should depart out of Nature before yet he ...
Page 36
... least where the greatest bulk is intended . We shall not attain to be spherical by lying on one or the other side for an eternity , but only by resigning ourselves im- plicitly to the law of gravity in us shall we find our axis ...
... least where the greatest bulk is intended . We shall not attain to be spherical by lying on one or the other side for an eternity , but only by resigning ourselves im- plicitly to the law of gravity in us shall we find our axis ...
Page 42
... least suggest a nobler and finer relation to nature than we know . The keeping of bees , for instance , is a very slight interference . It is like directing the sunbeams . All nations , from the remotest an- tiquity , have thus fingered ...
... least suggest a nobler and finer relation to nature than we know . The keeping of bees , for instance , is a very slight interference . It is like directing the sunbeams . All nations , from the remotest an- tiquity , have thus fingered ...
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
AMPHIARAUS behold better birds brave called Carlyle Church CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE commonly Concord death divine earnest earth England English experience eyes fate Father fear feet fire force friends Fugitive Slave Fugitive Slave Law genius gods Goethe hands hear heard heaven Heph Herald of Freedom hero horse human humor Inachus John Brown justice kind Kronos labor land least light live look man's Massachusetts ment merely mind mortals nature neighbors NEMEA never North Elba once ORCHOMENOS perchance philosophy Pindar Plutarch poet poetry prison Prometheus PROMETHEUS BOUND PYTHIA reform respect rule sense Sharps rifles slavery SLAVERY IN MASSACHUSETTS speak speech spirit stand stone sufferings sure sweet tell thee things THOMAS CARLYLE Thoreau thou thought tion true truth virtue vote whole wind wise wish words writing Zeus
Popular passages
Page 134 - NOT a drum was heard, not a funeral note, As his corse to the rampart we hurried ; Not a soldier discharged his farewell shot O'er the grave where our hero we buried.
Page 148 - Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.
Page 250 - They tame but one another still: Early or late They stoop to fate, And must give up their murmuring breath, When they, pale captives, creep to death. The garlands wither on your brow, Then boast no more your mighty deeds; Upon Death's purple altar now See, where the victor-victim bleeds: Your heads must come To the cold tomb; Only the actions of the just Smell sweet, and blossom in their dust.
Page 144 - ... But it is the fault of the government itself that the remedy is worse than the evil. It makes it worse. Why is it not more apt to anticipate and provide for reform? Why does it not cherish its wise minority? Why does it cry and resist before it is hurt? Why does it not encourage its citizens to be on the alert to point out its faults, and do better than it would have them? Why does it always crucify Christ, and excommunicate Copernicus and Luther, and pronounce Washington and Franklin rebels...
Page 134 - A common and natural result of an undue respect for law is, that you may see a file of soldiers, colonel, captain, corporal, privates, powdermonkeys, and all, marching in admirable order over hill and dale to the wars, against their wills, ay^ against their common sense and consciences, which makes it very steep marching indeed, and produces a palpitation of the heart.
Page 136 - How does it become a man to behave toward this American government to-day? I answer that he cannot without disgrace be associated with it. I cannot for an instant recognize that political organizations as my government which is the slave's government also.
Page 144 - If a man who has no property refuses but once to earn nine shillings for the state. he is put in prison for a period unlimited by any law that I know, and determined only by the discretion of those who placed him there; but if he should steal ninety times nine shillings from the state, he is soon permitted to go at large again. If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of government, let it go, let it go: perchance it will wear smooth — certainly the machine will wear out.
Page 150 - Cast your whole vote, not a strip of paper merely, but your whole influence. A minority is powerless while it conforms to the majority; it is not even a minority then; but it is irresistible when it clogs by its whole weight. If the alternative is to keep all just men in prison, or give up war and slavery, the state will not hesitate which to choose.
Page 220 - but firm, truthful, and intelligent. His men, too, who survive, are like him. . . . Colonel Washington says that he was the coolest and firmest man he ever saw in defying danger and death. With one son dead by his side, and another shot through, he felt the pulse of his dying son with one hand, and held his rifle with the other, and commanded his men with the utmost composure, encouraging them to be firm, and to sell their lives as dear as they could. Of the three white prisoners, Brown, Stevens,...
Page 134 - Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience, then?