I should be glad if all the meadows on the earth were left in a wild state, if that were the consequence of men’s beginning to redeem themselves.
—WaldenI should like not to exchange any of my life for money.
—Thoreau to H. G. O. Blake, 31 December 1856I should like to keep some book of natural history always by me as a sort of elixir, the reading of which would restore the tone of my system and secure me true and cheerful views of life.
—Journal, 31 December 1841I should not talk so much about myself if there were anybody else whom I knew as well. Unfortunately, I am confined to this theme by the narrowness of my experience.
—WaldenI sometimes awake in the night and think of friendship and its possibilities, a new life and revelation to me, which perhaps I had not experienced for many months.
—Journal, 13 July 1857I suppose that I have not many months to live; but, of course, I know nothing about it. I may add that I am enjoying existence as much as ever, and regret nothing.
—Thoreau to Myron B. Benton, 21 March 1862I suspect that the child plucks its first flower with an insight into its beauty & significance which the subsequent botanist never retains.
—Journal, 5 February 1852I sympathize not today with those who go to church in newest clothes and sit quietly in straight-backed pews. I sympathize rather with the boy who has none to look after him, who borrows a boat and paddle and in common clothes sets out to explore these temporary vernal lakes.
—Journal, 3 May 1857I sympathize with weeds perhaps more than with the crop they choke, they express so much vigor.
—Journal, 24 July 1852I 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 1851I think I cannot preserve my health and spirits unless I spend four hours a day at least—and it is commonly more than that—sauntering through the woods and fields absolutely free from all worldy engagements.
—"Walking"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 think that the standing miracle to man is man. Behind the paling yonder, come rain or shine, hope or doubt, there dwells a man an actual being who can sympathize with our sublimest thoughts.
—Journal, 21 May 1851I thrive best on solitude. If I have had a companion only one day in a week, unless it were one or two I could name, I find that the value of the week to me has been seriously affected. It dissipates my days, and often it takes me another week to get over it.
—Journal, 28 December 1856I waded quite round the swamp for an hour, my bare feet in the cold water beneath, and it was a relief to place them on the warmer surface of the sphagnum.
—Journal, 30 August 1856I wake up in the night to these higher levels of life, as to a day that begins to dawn, as if my intervening life had been a long night.
—Journal, 13 July 1857I walk out into a nature such as the old prophets and poets Menu, Moses, Homer, Chaucer, walked in. You may name it America, but it is not America. Neither Americus Vespucius, nor Columbus, nor the rest were the discoverers of it. There is a truer account of it in Mythology than in any history of America so called that I have seen.
—"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 1858I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Sparten-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion.
—Walden