"If anything ail a man, so that..." - Quote by Henry David Thoreau
If anything ail a man, so that he does not perform his functions, if he have a pain in his bowels even,- for that is the seat of sympathy,-he forthwith sets about reforming the world.
More by Henry David Thoreau
“As for men, they will hardly fail one anywhere. I had more visitors while I lived in the woods than at any other period of my life; I mean that I had some.”
“The lichen on the rocks is a rude and simple shield which beginning and imperfect Nature suspended there. Still hangs her wrinkledtrophy.”
“I once found a kernel of corn in the middle of a deep wood by Walden, tucked in behind a lichen on a pine, about as high as my head, either by a crow or a squirrel. It was a mile at least from any corn-field.”
More on Human Nature
“The motives of the best actions will not bear too strict an inquiry. It is allowed that the cause of most actions, good or bad, may be resolved into the love of ourselves; but the self-love of some men inclines them to please others, and the self-love of others is wholly employed in pleasing themselves. This makes the great distinction between virtue and vice.”
“Taking sides is the beginning of sincerity, and earnestness follows shortly afterwards, and the human being becomes a bore.”
“Morality is the theory that every human act must be either right or wrong, and that 99 % of them are wrong.”
More on Social Critique
“It is a great pleasure to escape sometimes from the restless class of Reformers. What if these grievances exist? So do you and I.”
“There is nothing so annoying as a good example!!”
“How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is a fateful fatalistic apathy.”