Henry David Thoreau
American philosopher and writer (1817 to 1862); graduated from Harvard in 1837; lived at Walden Pond for two years and two months; author of the essay Civil Disobedience.
Henry David Thoreau did not write this page.
We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.
The line under a date shows how recently it was said: empty within a month, full after three years.
-
Their wordsA government which deliberately enacts injustice, and persists in it, will at length even become the laughing-stock of the world.
↗A Yankee in Canada, with Anti-Slavery and Reform Papersgutenberg.org 1st of 8 in this piece
-
Their wordsThe law will never make men free; it is men who have got to make the law free. They are the lovers of law and order, who observe the law when the government breaks it.
↗A Yankee in Canada, with Anti-Slavery and Reform Papersgutenberg.org 2nd of 8 in this piece
-
Our reading
Whoever can discern truth has a higher authority than the highest judge who can discern only law
Their wordsWhoever can discern truth has received his commission from a higher source than the chiefest justice in the world, who can discern only law. He finds himself constituted judge of the judge.
↗A Yankee in Canada, with Anti-Slavery and Reform Papersgutenberg.org 3rd of 8 in this piece
-
Their wordsI believe that, in this country, the press exerts a greater and a more pernicious influence than the church did in its worst period.
↗A Yankee in Canada, with Anti-Slavery and Reform Papersgutenberg.org 4th of 8 in this piece
-
Their wordsI would remind my countrymen, that they are to be men first, and Americans only at a late and convenient hour.
↗A Yankee in Canada, with Anti-Slavery and Reform Papersgutenberg.org 5th of 8 in this piece
-
Our reading
A righteous reform cannot be achieved by expediency; in morals there is no sliding uphill
Their wordsBut there is no such thing as accomplishing a righteous reform by the use of "expediency." There is no such thing as sliding up hill. In morals, the only sliders are backsliders.
↗A Yankee in Canada, with Anti-Slavery and Reform Papersgutenberg.org 6th of 8 in this piece
-
Our reading
A country's fate depends less on how people vote than on what kind of people they are each day
Their wordsThe fate of the country does not depend on how you vote at the polls,-the worst man is as strong as the best at that game; it does not depend on what kind of paper you drop into the ballot-box once a year, but on what kind of man you drop from your chamber into the street every morning.
↗A Yankee in Canada, with Anti-Slavery and Reform Papersgutenberg.org 7th of 8 in this piece
-
Their wordsThe effect of a good government is to make life more valuable,-of a bad one, to make it less valuable.
↗A Yankee in Canada, with Anti-Slavery and Reform Papersgutenberg.org 8th of 8 in this piece
The line under a date fills as the words age, a quarter at a time: past a month, six months, a year, and three years. Empty means said within the last month; full, more than three years ago. It says when, not whether it still holds — a change of mind is marked on the claim itself.
Dashed means we only know the words existed by that date; they may be older.