What other liberty is there worth having, if we have not freedom and peace in our minds,—if our inmost and most private man is but a sour and turbid pool.
—Journal, 26 October 1853What poem is this of spring, so often repeated! I am thrilled when I hear it spoken of,—as the spring of such a year, that fytte of the glorious epic.
—Journal, 18 February 1857What sort of space is that which separates a man from his fellows and makes him solitary? I have found that no exertion of the legs can bring two minds much nearer to one another.
—WaldenWhat was enthusiasm in the young man must become temperament in the mature man.
—Journal, 1 November 1851What we want is not mainly to colonize Nebraska with free men, but to colonize Massachusetts with free men-to be free ourselves. As the enterprise of a few individuals, that is brave and practical; but as the enterprise of the State, it is cowardice and imbecility. What odds where we squat, or bow much ground we cover? It is not the soil that we would make free, but men.
—Journal, 18 June 1854What would we not give for some great poem to read now, which would be in harmony with the scenery,—for if men read aright, methinks they would never read anything but poems. No history nor philosophy can supply their place.
—A Week on the Concord and Merrimack RiversWhatever book or sentence will bear to be read twice, we may be sure was thought twice.
—Journal, 18 March 1842Whatever has not come under the sway of man is wild. In this sense original and independent men are wild—not tamed and broken by society.
—Journal, 3 September 1851Whatever of past or present wisdom has published itself to the world, is palpable falsehood till it come and utter itself by my side.
—Journal, 4 August 1838Whatever your sex or position, life is a battle in which you are to show your pluck, and woe be to the coward.
—Journal, 21 March 1853When a noble deed is done, who is likely to appreciate it? They who are noble themselves.
—"A Plea for Captain John Brown"When heaven begins and the dead arise, no trumpet is blown; perhaps the south wind will blow. What if you or I be dead! God is alive still.
—Journal, 13 March 1842When I consider how our houses are built and paid for, or not paid for, and their internal economy managed and sustained, I wonder that the floor does not give way under the visitor while he is admiring the gewgaws upon the mantelpiece, and let him through into the cellar, to some solid and honest though earthy foundation.
—WaldenWhen I find a new and rare plant in Concord I seem to think it has but just sprung up here—that it is, and not I am, the newcomer—while it has grown here for ages before I was born.
—Journal, 2 September 1856When I go a-visiting I find that I go off the fashionable street—not being inclined to change my dress—to where man meets man and not polished shoe meets shoe.
—Journal, 11 June 1855