Henry David Thoreau Quotes About Accomplishment

• We believe that the possibility of the future far exceeds the accomplishment of the past. We review the past with the common sense, but we anticipate the future with transcendental senses. In our sanest moments we find ourselves naturally expecting or prepared for far greater changes than any which we have experienced within the period of distinct memory, only to be paralleled by experiences which are forgotten.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Memories, Believe, Past

  Henry David Thoreau (1968). “Reflections at Walden: Selected Writings”

• The theories and speculations of men concern us more than their puny accomplishment. It is with a certain coldness and languor that we loiter about the actual and so-called practical.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Men, Action, Theory

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “The Essential Thoreau”, p.236, Simon and Schuster

• What avail all your scholarly accomplishments and learning, compared with wisdom and manhood? To omit his other behavior, see whata work this comparatively unread and unlettered man wrote within six weeks. Where is our professor of belles-lettres, or of logic and rhetoric, who can write so well?

  Henry David Thoreau

  Education, Writing, Men

  Henry David Thoreau (2007). “My Thoughts Are Murder to the State: Thoreau's Essays on Political Philosophy”, p.67, David M Gross

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