-
“In
the woods, too, a man casts off his years, as the snake his slough,
and at what period soever of life is only a child. In the woods is
perpetual youth.”
Emerson "Nature"
-
“In
the woods, we return to faith and reason. There I feel that nothing
can befall me in life—no disgrace, no calamity (leaving me my
eyes), which nature cannot repair.”
Emerson "Nature"
-
“(In
the woods), I become a transparent eyeball; I am nothing; I see all;
the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part
or parcel of God.”
Emerson "Nature"
-
“The
name of the nearest friend sounds then foreign and accidental: to be
brothers, to be acquaintances, master or servant, is then a trifle
and a disturbance.”
Emerson "Nature"
-
“Yet
it is certain that the power to produce this delight (which is
delight from nature), does not reside in nature, but in man, or in
harmony of both.”
Emerson "Nature"
-
“Standing
on the bare ground—my head bathed in blithe (carefree) air and
uplifted into infinite space—all mean egotism vanishes.”
Emerson "Nature"
-
“For
nature is not always tricked (dressed) in holiday attire, but the
same scene which yesterday breathed perfume and glittered as for the
frolic of the nymphs is overspread with melancholy today.”
Emerson "Nature"
-
“The
government itself, which is the only mode which the people have
chosen to execute their will, is equally liable to be abused and
perverted before the people can act through it.”
Thoreau "Civil Disobedience"
-
“This
American government—what is it but a tradition, though a recent
one, endeavoring to transmit itself unimpaired to posterity, but each
instant losing some of its integrity.”
Thoreau "Civil Disobedience"
-
“It
is a sort of wooden gun to the people themselves: and, if ever they
should use it in earnest as a real one against each other, it will
surely split.”
Thoreau "Civil Disobedience"
-
“It
does not keep the country free. It
does not settle the west. It
does not educate. The character inherent in the American people has
done all that has been accomplished...”
Thoreau "Civil Disobedience"
-
“Let
every man make known what kind of government would command his
respect, and that will be one step toward obtaining it….”
Thoreau "Civil Disobedience"
-
“I
heartily accept the motto, ‘That government is best which governs
least’: and I should like to see it acted upon more rapidly and
systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which I
also believe: ‘That government is best which governs not at all.’”
Thoreau "Civil Disobedience"
-
“…no
kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil
bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till.”
Emerson "Self-Reliance"
-
“We
but half express ourselves, and are ashamed of that divine idea which
each of us represents.”
Emerson "Self-Reliance"
-
“Society
everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its
members. Society is a joint-stock company in which the members agree
for the better securing of his bread to each shareholder, to
surrender the liberty and culture of the eater. The
virtue in most request is conformity. Self-reliance is its
aversion.”
Emerson "Self-Reliance"
-
“Whoso
would be a man must be a nonconformist.”
Emerson "Self-Reliance"
-
“Speak
what you think now in hard words and tomorrow speak what tomorrow
thinks in hard words again, though it contradict everything you said
today.”
Emerson "Self-Reliance"
-
“Ah,
so you shall be sure to be misunderstood?—is it so bad then to be
misunderstood?...To be great is to be misunderstood.”
Emerson "Self-Reliance"
-
“There
is a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the
conviction that envy is ignorance: that imitation is suicide…”
Emerson "Self-Reliance"
-
“I
went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front
only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what
it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not
lived.”
Thoreau "Walden"
-
“I
wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so
sturdy and Spartanlike as to put to rout all that was not life, to
cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and
reduce it to its lowest terms…”
Thoreau "Walden"
-
“Our
life is frittered away by detail.”
Thoreau "Walden"
-
“Simplicity,
simplicity, simplicity!”
Thoreau "Walden"
-
“We
do not ride on the railroad; it rides upon us…”
Thoreau "Walden"
-
“If
you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that
is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them….”
Thoreau "Walden"
-
“If
a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because
he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music he hears,
however measured or far away…”
Thoreau "Walden"
-
“Cultivate
poverty like a garden herb, like sage…Things do not change; we
change. Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts.”
Thoreau "Walden"
-
“I
read somewhere…how important it is in life not necessarily to be
strong…but to feel
strong.”
Into the Wild
-
“I’m
going to paraphrase Thoreau here: ‘Rather
than love, than money, than faith,
than
fame,
than fairness…give me truth.’”
Into the Wild
-
“If
we admit that human life can be ruled by reason, then all
possibility of human life is destroyed.”
Into the Wild
-
“The
core of mans’ spirit comes from new experiences.”
Into the Wild
-
“Mr.
Franz, I think careers are a 20th
century invention, and I don’t want one.”
Into the Wild
-
“You
don’t need human relationships to be happy: God has placed it all
around us.”
Into the Wild
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