Consider what a difference there is between living and dying. To die is not to begin to die, and continue; it is not a state of continuance, but of transientness; but to life is a condition of continuance, and does not mean to be born merely.
—Journal, 12 March 1842Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other’s eyes for an instant?
—WaldenDeliver me from a city built on the site of a more ancient city, whose materials are ruins, whose gardens cemeteries.
—WaldenDense flocks of blackbirds were winging their way along the river’s course, as if on a short evening pilgrimage to some shrine of theirs, or to celebrate so fair a sunset.
—A Week on the Concord and Merrimack RiversDo not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for love.
—"Life without Principle"Do not tread on the heels of your experience. Be impressed without making a minute of it.
—Journal, 23 July 1851Do we call this the land of the free? What is it to be free from King George the Fourth and continue the slaves of prejudice?
—Journal, 16 February 1851Do what you reprove yourself for not doing. Know that you are neither satisfied nor dissatisfied with yourself without reason.
—Journal, 1850Do you think that I should shoot you if I wanted to study you?
—“A Visit to Walden Pond” by Hector Waylen (Natural Food, July 1895)Do your work, and finish it. If you know how to begin, you will know when to end.
—"A Plea for Captain John Brown"Drink the wines not of your bottling but nature’s bottling—not kept in goat skins or pig skins but the skins of a myriad fair berries.
—Journal, 23 August 1853Each more melodious note I hear
Brings this reproach to me,
That I alone afford the ear,
Who would the music be.
Each reaching and aspiration is an instinct with which all nature consists and cooperates, and therefore it is not in vain. But alas! each relaxing and desperation is an instinct too. To be active, well, happy, implies rare courage. To be ready to fight in a duel or a battle implies desperation, or that you hold your life cheap.
—Thoreau to H.G.O. Blake, 20 May 1860Each season is but an infinitesimal point. It no sooner comes than it is gone.
—Journal, 6 June 1857