Man is not at once born into society—hardly into the world. The world that he is hides for a time the world that he inhabits.
—Journal, 14 March 1838Man’s progress through nature should have an accompaniment of music. It relieves the scenery, which is seen through it as a subtler element, like a very clear morning air in autumn.
—Journal, 8 January 1842Many a forenoon have I stolen away, preferring to spend thus the most valued part of the day; for I was rich, if not in money, in sunny hours and summer days, and spent them lavishly; nor do I regret that I did not waste more of them in the workshop or the teacher’s desk.
—WaldenMany an object is not seen, though it falls within the range of our visual ray, because it does not come within the range of our intellectual ray, i.e. we are not looking for it. So, in the largest sense, we find only the world we look for.
—Journal, 2 July 1857Many brave men have there been, thank Fortune, but I shall never grow brave by comparison.
—Journal, 29 November 1839Many college text-books which were a weariness and a stumbling-block when studied, I have since read a little in with pleasure and profit.
—Journal, 19 February 1854Many seem to be so constituted that they can respect only somebody who is dead or something which is distant.
—Journal, 28 November 1860Marching is when the pulse of the hero beats in unison with the pulse of Nature, and he steps to the measure of the universe; then there is true courage and invincible strength.
—A Week on the Concord and Merrimack RiversÂMay I be to myself as one is to me whom I love, a dear and cherished object.
—Journal, 18 July 1851May I go to my slumbers as expecting to arise to a new and more perfect day.
—Journal, 16 July 1851Men esteem truth remote, in the outskirts of the system, behind the farthest star, before Adam and after the last man.
—WaldenMen frequently say to me, “I should think you would feel lonesome down there, and want to be nearer to folks, rainy and snowy days and nights especially.” I am tempted to reply to such,—This whole earth which we inhabit is but a point in space. How far apart, think you, dwell the two most distant inhabitants of yonder star, the breadth of whose disk cannot be appreciated by our instruments? Why should I feel lonely? is not our planet in the Milky Way? This which you put seems to me not to be the most important question. What sort of space is that which separates a man from his fellows and makes him solitary? I have found that no exertion of legs can bring two minds much nearer to one another.
—WaldenMen have a respect for scholarship and learning greatly out of proportion to the use they commonly serve.
—A Week on the Concord and Merrimack RiversMen have a singular desire to be good without being good for any thing, because, perchance, they think vaguely that so it will be good for them in the end.
—A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers