Henry David Thoreau Quotations: ECONOMY
The laborer whose body is weary does not require the same food with the scholar whose brain is weary.—Thoreau to H.G.O. Blake, 2 May 1848
The less you get, the happier and richer you are.—Journal, 28 November 1860
The millions are awake enough for physical labor; but only one in a million is awake enough for effective intellectual exertion, only one in a hundred millions to a poetic or divine life.—Walden
The only house I had been the owner of before, if I except a boat, was a tent, which I used occasionally when making excursions in the summer, and this is still rolled up in my garret; but the boat, after passing from hand to hand, has gone down the stream of time. With this more substantial shelter about me, I had made some progress toward settling in the world.—Walden
The present is the instant work and near process of living, and will be found in the last analysis to be nothing more nor less than digestion. Sometimes, it is true, it is indigestion.—Journal, after 21 October 1842
The question is whether you can bear freedom. At present the vast majority of men, whether white or black, require the discipline of labor which enslaves them for their own good.—Journal, 1 September 1853
The rich man . . . is always sold to the institution which makes him rich.—"Resistance to Civil Government"
The scholar's and the farmers's work are strictly analogous. . . . He is doing like myself. My barn-yard is my journal.—Journal, 20 January 1852
The student who secures his coveted leisure and retirement by systematically shirking any labor necessary to man obtains but an ignoble and unprofitable leisure, defrauding himself of the experience which alone can make leisure fruitful.—Walden
The twelve labors of Hercules were trifling in comparison with those which my neighbors have undertaken; for they were only twelve, and had an end; but I could never see that these men slew or captured any monster or finished any labor. They have no friend Iolaus to burn with a hot iron the root of the hydra's head, but as soon as one head is crushed, two spring up.—Walden
