Show me a man who consults his genius, and you have shown me a man who cannot be advised.
—Journal, 27 December 1858Simple arithmetic might have corrected it; for the life of every man has, after all, an epic integrity, and Nature adapts herself to our weakness and deficiencies as well as talents.
—Journal, 1845-47Sky water. It needs no fence. Nations come and go without defiling it. It is a mirror which no stone can crack, whose quicksilver will never wear off, whose gilding Nature continually repairs.
—WaldenSo far as the natural history is concerned, you often have your choice between uninteresting truth and interesting falsehood.
—Journal, 5 March 1860So far from being false or fabulous in the common sense, it contains only enduring and essential truth, the I and you, the here and there, the now and then, being omitted.
—A Week on the Concord and Merrimack RiversSo few habitually intoxicate themselves with music, so many with alcohol. I think, perchance, I may risk it, it will whet my senses so.
—Journal, 16 October 1857So is all change for the better, like birth and death which convulse the body.
—"Resistance to Civil Government"So is not shade as good as sunshine—night as day? Why be eagles and thrushes always, and owls and whippoor-wills never?
—Journal, 16 June 1840So mild the air a pleasure ’twas to breathe,
For what seems heaven above was earth beneath.
So vivacious is redness. The very rails reflect a rosy light at this hour and season. You see a redder tree than exists.
—"Autumnal Tints"Society is commonly too cheap. We meet at very short intervals, not having had time to acquire any new value for each other.
—WaldenSome are “industrious,” and appear to love labor for its own sake, or perhaps because it keeps them out of worse mischief; to such I have at present nothing to say. Those who would not know what to do with more leisure than they now enjoy, I might advise to work twice as hard as they do—work till they pay for themselves, and get their free papers.
—WaldenSome consider blue “to be the color of pure water, whether liquid or solid.” But, looking directly down into our waters from a boat, they are seen to be of very different colors. Walden is blue at one time and green at another, even from the same point of view. Lying between the earth and the heavens, it partakes of the color of both.
—WaldenSome do not walk at all; others walk in the highways; a few walk across lots. Roads are made for horses and men of business. I do not travel in them much, comparatively, because I am not in a hurry to get to any tavern or grocery or livery-stable or depot to which they lead.
—"Walking"Some dreams are divine, as well as some waking thoughts.
—A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers