thoreau quotes
For most men, it appears to me, are in a strange uncertainty about it [life], whether it is of the devil or of God, and have somewhat hastily concluded that it is the chief end of man here to "glorify God and enjoy him forever."
I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor.
Why should we live with such hurry and waste of life? We are determined to be starved before we are hungry.
Shams and delusions are esteemed for soundest truths, while reality is fabulous.... When we are unhurried and wise, we perceive that only great and worthy things have any permanent and absolute existence, that petty fears and petty pleasures are but the shadow of the reality....Children, who play life, discern its true law and relations more clearly than men, who fail to live it worthily, but who think that they are wiser by experience, that is, by failure.
I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor.
Why should we live with such hurry and waste of life? We are determined to be starved before we are hungry.
Shams and delusions are esteemed for soundest truths, while reality is fabulous.... When we are unhurried and wise, we perceive that only great and worthy things have any permanent and absolute existence, that petty fears and petty pleasures are but the shadow of the reality....Children, who play life, discern its true law and relations more clearly than men, who fail to live it worthily, but who think that they are wiser by experience, that is, by failure.