Henry David Thoreau Quotations: Philosophy & Philosophers
My desire for knowledge is intermittent, but my desire to bathe my head in atmospheres unknown to my feet is perennial and constant. The highest that we can attain to is not Knowledge, but Sympathy with Intelligence.—"Walking"
On every hand we observe a truly wise practice, in education, in morals, and in the arts of life, the embodied wisdom of many an ancient philosopher.—A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
Only in their saner moments do men hear the crickets. It is balm to the philosopher. It tempers his thoughts.—Journal, 22 May 1854
Poetry implies the whole truth. Philosophy expresses a particle of it.—Journal, 26 January 1852
Poets and philosophers and statesmen thus spring up in the country pastures, and outlast the hosts of unoriginal men.—"Wild Apples"
Slow are the beginnings of philosophy.—"Natural History of Massachusetts"
The best philosophy untrue that aims
But to console man for his grievances.—"Natural History of Massachusetts"
The fact is I am a mystic, a transcendentalist, and a natural philosopher to boot.—Journal, 5 March 1853
The farmer has always come to the field after some material thing: that is not what a philosopher goes there for.—Journal, 14 October 1857
The oldest Egyptian or Hindoo philosopher raised a corner of the veil from the statue of the divinity; and still the trembling robe remains raised, and I gaze upon as fresh a glory as he did, since it was I in him that was then so bold, and it is he in me that now reviews the vision.—Walden
