The Man of Genius, referred to mankind, is an originator, an inspired or demonic man, who produces a perfect work in obedience to laws yet unexplored.
—A Week on the Concord and Merrimack RiversThe man of most science is the man most alive, whose life is the greatest event.
—Journal, 6 May 1854The man who takes the liberty to live is superior to all the laws, by virtue of his relation to the lawmaker. “That is active duty,” says the Vishnu Purana, “which is not for our bondage; that is knowledge which is for our liberation: all other duty is good only unto weariness; all other knowledge is only the cleverness of an artist.”
—"A Walk to Wachusett"The man who thrusts his manners upon me does as if he were to insist on introducing me to his cabinet of curiosities, when I wished to see himself.
—"Life without Principle"The mass of men are very unpoetic yet that Adam that names things is always a poet.
—Journal, 30 July 1853The mass of men are very easily imposed on. They have their runways in which they always travel, and are sure to fall into any pit or box-trap set therein.
—Journal, 28 November 1860The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation.
—WaldenThe millions are awake enough for physical labor; but only one in a million is awake enough for effective intellectual exertion, only one in a hundred millions to a poetic or divine life.
—WaldenThe mind is subject to moods, as the shadows of clouds pass over the earth. Pay not too much heed to them. Let not the traveler stop for them.
—Journal, 23 July 1851The mind that perceives clearly any natural beauty is in that instant withdrawn from human society. My desire for society is infinitely increased—my fitness for any actual society is diminished.
—Journal, 26 July 1852The monster is never just there where we think he is. What is truly monstrous is our cowardice and sloth.
—Thoreau to H. G. O. Blake, 19 December 1854The more we know about the ancients, the more we find that they were like the moderns.
—Journal, 2 September 1851The morning wind forever blows, the poem of creation is uninterrupted; but few are the ears that hear it.
—WaldenThe most beautiful thing in Nature is the sun reflected from a tear-ful cloud.
—Journal, 7 September 1851The mother tells her falsehoods to her child, but thank Heaven, the child does not grow up in its parent’s shadow.
—A Week on the Concord and Merrimack RiversThe music of all creatures has to do with their loves, even of toads and frogs. Is it not the same with man?
—Journal, 6 May 1852The muskrat and the fresh water muscle are very native to our river. The Indian, their human compere, has departed.
—Journal, 7 October 1851The New Testament is remarkable for its pure morality; the best of the Hindoo Scripture, for its pure intellectuality. The reader is nowhere raised into and sustained in a higher, purer, or rarer region of thought than in the Bhagvat-Geeta.
—A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers