"It's the beauty within us that makes it possible for us to recognize the beauty around us. The question is not what you look at but what you see."
"Thus the State never intentionally confronts a man's sense, intellectual or moral, but only his body, his senses. It is not armed with superior wit or honesty, but with superior physical strength. I was not born to be forced. I will breathe after my own fashion."
5 likes
Source: Henry David Thoreau (2013). “The Selected Essays of Henry David Thoreau”, p.108, Simon and Schuster
About the author
Same author
More quotes by Henry David Thoreau
"Simplify your life. Don't waste the years struggling for things that are unimportant. Don't burden yourself with possessions. Keep your needs and wants simple and enjoy what you have. Don't destroy your peace of mind by looking back, worrying about the past. Live in the present. Simplify!"
"If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined..."
"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately."
"be yourself- not your idea of what you think somebody else's idea of yourself should be."
"What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lives within us."