"We are accustomed to say, that the..." - Quote by Henry David Thoreau
We are accustomed to say, that the mass of men are unprepared; but improvement is slow, because the few are not materially wiser or better than the many.
More by Henry David Thoreau
“Morning is when I am awake and there is a dawn in me.”
“Poverty ... It is life near the bone, where it is sweetest.”
“You can hardly convince a man of an error in a lifetime, but must content yourself with the reflection that the progress of science is slow. If he is not convinced, his grandchildren may be.”
More on Society
“The chief want, in every state that I have been into, was a high and earnest purpose in its inhabitants.”
“When commenting on the turmoil and disorder of the world, If the other planets are inhabited, they must be using this earth as their insane asylum.”
“Society has always seemed to demand a little more from human beings than it will get in practice.”
More on Progress
“In our personal ambitions we are individualists. But in our seeking for economic and political progress as a nation, we all go up or else all go down as one people.”
“People who are not leaders automatically gravitate toward lines--limitations set by others. Many people are taught this in kindergarten when they are instructed to stay within the lines while coloring. But leaders are more creative than that. They look for options and opportunities. They try to take things in a new direction, or beyond the limit. Progress and innovation are made by people who think without lines.”
“We go into space because whatever mankind must undertake, free men must fully share.”