Henry David Thoreau Quotes About Affection

• Every man looks at his wood-pile with a kind of affection.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Men, Looks, Woods

  Henry David Thoreau (2006). “Thoreau and the Art of Life: Precepts and Principles”, p.73, Heron Dance Press

• The order of things should be reversed; the seventh day should be the day of toil...and the other six his Sabbath of the affections and the soul, in which to range this widerspread garden, and drink in the soft influences and sublime revelations of Nature.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Garden, Order, Soul

• Nature must be viewed humanly to be viewed at all; that is, her scenes must be associated with humane affections, such as are associated with one's native place. She is most significant to a lover. A lover of Nature is preeminently a lover of man. If I have no friend, what is Nature to me? She ceases to be morally significant. . .

  Henry David Thoreau

  Nature, Men, No Friends

  Henry David Thoreau (2006). “Thoreau and the Art of Life: Precepts and Principles”, p.11, Heron Dance Press

• Man wanted a home, a place for warmth, or comfort, first of physical warmth, then the warmth of the affections.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Home, Men, Comfort

  Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.168, Penguin

• Here is this vast, savage, howling mother of ours,
  Nature, lying all around, with such beauty, and such affection for her children,
  as the leopard; and yet we are so early weaned
  from her breast to society, to that culture which is exclusively
  an interaction of man on man.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Mother, Nature, Children

  Henry David Thoreau, Joseph O. Valentine, Thoreau Society (2001). “Thoreau on Land: Nature's Canvas”, p.44, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

• Ice is an interesting subject for contemplation. They told me that they had some in the ice-houses at Fresh Pond five years old which was as good as ever. Why is it that a bucket of water soon becomes putrid, but frozen remains sweet forever? It is commonly said that this is the difference between the affections and the intellect.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Sweet, Years, Ice

  Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.315, Penguin

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