"Shams and delusions are esteemed for soundest..." - Quote by Henry David Thoreau
Shams and delusions are esteemed for soundest truths, while reality is fabulous. If men would steadily observe realities only, and not allow themselves to be deluded, life ... would be like a fairy tale and the Arabian Nights' Entertainments.
More by Henry David Thoreau
“If thousands are thrown out of employment, it suggests that they were not well employed. Why don't they take the hint? It is not enough to be industrious; so are the ants. What are you industrious about?”
“Let go of the past and live the future . . . Live the life you imagined.”
“No man who acts from a sense of duty ever puts the lesser duty above the greater. No man has the desire and the ability to work onhigh things, but he has also the ability to build himself a high staging.”
More on Reality
“Tricks you need to transform something which appears fantastic, unbelievable into something plausible, credible, those I learned from journalism. The key is to tell it straight. It is done by reporters and by country folk.”
“Democracy is only a dream: it should be put in the same category as Arcadia, Santa Claus, and Heaven.”
“It is much easier to seem fitted for posts we do not fill than for those we do.”
More on Truth
“Art flies around truth, but with the definite intention of not getting burnt. Its capacity lies in finding in the dark void a place where the beam of light can be intensely caught, without this having been perceptible before.”
“Death is at any time blessed but it is twice blessed for a warrior who dies for his cause, that is, truth.”
“Youth, though it may lack knowledge, is certainly not devoid of intelligence; it sees through shams with sharp and terrible eyes.”