"The art of life, of a poet's..." - Quote by Henry David Thoreau

“The monster is never just there where we think he is. What is truly monstrous is our cowardice and sloth.”

“Be assured that every man's success is in proportion to his average ability. The meadow flowers spring and bloom where the watersannually deposit their slime, not where they reach in some freshet only. A man is not his hope, nor his despair, nor yet his past deed. We know not yet what we have done, still less what we are doing. Wait till evening, and other parts of our day's work will shine than we had thought at noon, and we shall discover the real purport of our toil. As when the farmer has reached the end of the furrow and looks back, he can tell best where the pressed earth shines most.”

“I love a broad margin to my life. Sometimes, in a summer morning, having taken my accustomed bath, I sat in my sunny doorway from sunrise til noon, rapt in a revery.”

“Actually it seems to me that one can hardly say anything either bad enough or good enough about life.”

“When our life ceases to be inward and private, conversation degenerates into mere gossip.”

“As an elderly man, I have remained estranged from the society here.”

“Zweck sein selbst ist jegliches Tier.Each animal is an end in itself.”

“Men are in the main alike, but they were made several in order that they might be various. If a low use is to be served, one man will do nearly quite as well as another; if a high one, individual excellence is to be regarded.”

“This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one.”