"We are not what we are, nor..." - Quote by Henry David Thoreau

“The way by which you may get money almost without exception leads downward.”

“It is childish to rest in the discovery of mere coincidences, or of partial and extraneous laws.”

“Poetry is the only life got, the only work done, the only pure product and free labor of man, performed only when he has put all the world under his feet, and conquered the last of his foes.”

“It appears to general observation, that revolutions create genius and talents; but those events do no more than bring them forward. There is existing in man, a mass of sense lying in a dormant state, and which, unless something excites it to action, will descend with him, in that condition, to the grave. As it is to the advantage of society that the whole of its faculties should be employed, the construction of government ought to be such as to bring forward, by a quiet and regular operation, all that extent of capacity which never fails to appear in revolutions.”

“But why should not the New Englander try new adventures - not lay so much stress on his grain, his potato and grass crop, and his orchards - and raise other crops than these? Why concern ourselves so much about our beans for seed, and not be concerned at all about a new generation of men.”

“Treat a person as they are, they will remain so. Treat a person the way that person can be and is capable of being and that person will become as he or she can be and should be.”

“What good is any feeling we may have about ourselves, if it only lasts as long as others agree to it?”

“I wanted to be in a punk band before I had even heard any punk music.”

“If an urn lacks the characteristics of an urn, how can we call it an urn?”