"Despair and postponement are cowardice and defeat. Men were born to succeed, not to fail."
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Henry David Thoreau quotes (page 54 of 139)
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"Ice is an interesting subject for contemplation. They told me that they had some in the ice-houses at Fresh Pond five years old which was as good as ever. Why is it that a bucket of water soon becomes putrid, but frozen remains sweet forever? It is commonly said that this is the difference between the affections and the intellect."
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"What is most striking in the Maine wilderness is the continuousness of the forest, with fewer open intervals or glades than you had imagined. Except the few burnt lands, the narrow intervals on the rivers, the bare tops of the high mountains, and the lakes and streams, the forest is uninterrupted."
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"The youth may build or plant or sail, only let him not be hindered from doing that which he tells me he would like to do."
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"How does it become a man to behave towards the American government today? I answer, that he cannot without disgrace be associated with it."
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"If I devote myself to other pursuits and contemplations, I must first see, at least, that I do not pursue them sitting upon another man's shoulders. I must get off him first, that he may pursue his contemplations too."
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"Perhaps we should never procure a new suit, however ragged or dirty the old, until we have so conducted or enterprised or sailed in some way, that we feel like new men in the old, and that to retain it would be like keeping new wine in old bottles."
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"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."
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"In some pictures of Provincetown the persons of the inhabitants are not drawn below the ankles, so much being supposed to be buried in the sand."
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"For hours, in fall days, I watched the ducks cunningly tack and veer and hold the middle of the pond, far from the sportsman;... but what beside safety they got by sailing in the middle of Walden I do not know, unless they love its water for the same reason that I do."
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"The really efficient laborer will be found not to crowd his day with work, but will saunter to his task surrounded by a wide halo of ease and leisure."
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"We seem but to linger in manhood to tell the dreams of our childhood, and they vanish out of memory ere we learn the language."
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"Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each. Let them be your only diet drink and botanical medicines."
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"As long as possible live free and uncommitted. It makes but little difference whether you are committed to a farm or the county jail."
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"I should not talk so much about myself if there were anybody else whom I knew as well."
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"Any man more right than his neighbors constitutes a majority of one already."
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"But why should not the New Englander try new adventures - not lay so much stress on his grain, his potato and grass crop, and his orchards - and raise other crops than these? Why concern ourselves so much about our beans for seed, and not be concerned at all about a new generation of men."
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"The fire is the main comfort of the camp, whether in summer or winter"
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"I cannot fish without falling a little in self-respect...always when I have done I feel it would have been better if I had not fished."
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"It takes a man of genius to travel in his own country, in his native village; to make any progress between his door and his gate."
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