Henry David Thoreau Quotations: ECONOMY
I sympathize with weeds perhaps more than with the crop they choke, they express so much vigor.—Journal, 24 July 1852
I talked of buying Conantum once but for want of money we did not come to terms—but I have farmed it in my own fashion every year since.—Journal, 31 August 1851
I think that the farmer displaces the Indian even because he redeems the meadow, and so makes himself stronger and in some respects more natural.—"Walking"
I want nothing new, if I can have but a tithe of the old secured to me. I will spurn all wealth beside. Think of the consummate folly of attempting to go away from here! When the constant endeavor should be to get nearer and nearer here!—Journal, 1 November 1858
I was not anchored to a house or farm, but could follow the bent of my genius, which is a very crooked one, every moment.—Walden
I wish to suggest that a man may be very industrious, and yet not spend his time well. There is no more fatal blunderer than he who consumes the greater part of life getting his living.—"Life Without Principle"
I would rather save one of these hawks than have a hundred hens and chickens. It is worth more to see them soar, especially now that they are so rare in the landscape. It is easy to buy eggs, but not to buy hen-hawks. My neighbors would not hesitate to shoot the last pair of hen-hawks in the town to save a few of their chickens! But such economy is narrow and grovelling. It is unnecessarily to sacrifice the greater value to the less. I would rather never taste chickens’ meat nor hens’ eggs than never to see a hawk sailing through the upper air again. This sight is worth incomparably more than a chicken soup or a boiled egg. So we exterminate the deer and substitute the hog.—Journal, 13 June 1853
If you mean by hard times, times not when there is no bread, but when there is no cake, I have no sympathy with you.—Journal, 28 January 1852
If you wish to give a man a sense of poverty, give him a thousand dollars. The next hundred dollars he gets will not be worth more than ten that he used to get. Have pity on him; withhold your gifts.—Journal, 20 January 1856
If you would get money as a writer or lecturer, you must be popular, which is to go down perpendicularly.—"Life without Principle"
