Henry David Thoreau Quotes About Desire

• Even voting for the right is doing nothing for it. It is only expressing to men feebly your desire that it should prevail. A wise man will not leave the right to the mercy of chance, nor wish it to prevail through the power of the majority. There is but little virtue in the action of masses of men.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Wise, Men, Voting

  Henry David Thoreau (1942). “Civil Disobedience”, p.6, Hayes Barton Press

• My desire for knowledge is intermittent; but my desire to commune with the spirit of the universe, to be intoxicated with the fumes, call it, of that divine nectar, to bear my head through atmospheres and over heights unknown to my feet, is perennial and constant.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Feet, Atmosphere, Desire

  Henry David Thoreau (1960). “H. D. Thoreau, a Writer's Journal”, p.26, Courier Corporation

• I only desire sincere relations with the worthiest of my acquaintance, that they may give me an opportunity once in a year to speak the truth.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Truth, Opportunity, Years

  Henry David Thoreau, Jeffrey S. Cramer (2007). “I to Myself: An Annotated Selection from the Journal of Henry D. Thoreau”, p.163, Yale University Press

• I desire that there be as many different persons in the world as possible; I would have each one be very careful to find out and preserve his own way.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Thinking, Desire, Different

• If a man constantly aspires is he not elevated?

  Henry David Thoreau

  Motivational, Men, Desire

  Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.357, Penguin

• My desire for knowledge is intermittent; but my desire to bathe my head in atmospheres unknown to my feet is perennial and constant. The highest that we can attain to is not Knowledge, but Sympathy with Intelligence. I do not know that this higher knowledge amounts to anything more definite than a novel and grand surprise on a sudden revelation of the insufficiency of all that we called Knowledge before,—a discovery that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in our philosophy.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Philosophy, Feet, Discovery

  Henry David Thoreau (2015). “Walking”, p.26, Sheba Blake Publishing

• Every sunset which I witness inspires me with the desire to go to a west as distant and as fair as that into which the Sun goes down. He appears to migrate westward daily and tempt us to follow him. He is the Great Western Pioneer whom the nations follow. We dream all night of those mountain ridges in the horizon, though they may be of vapor only, which were last gilded by his rays.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Dream, Sunset, Night

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “The Selected Essays of Henry David Thoreau”, p.165, Simon and Schuster

• 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.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Ambition, Men, Desire

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.1753, Delphi Classics

• Men have a singular desire to be good without being good for anything, because, perchance, they think vaguely that so it will be good for them in the end.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Men, Thinking, Desire

  Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.96, Penguin

• Though my life is low, if my spirit looks upward habitually at an elevated angle, it is as if it were redeemed. When the desire to be better than we are is really sincere we are instantly elevated, and so far better already.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Desire, Looks, Spirit

  Henry David Thoreau (1960). “H. D. Thoreau, a Writer's Journal”, p.25, Courier Corporation

• I take it for granted, when I am invited to lecture anywhere,--for I have had a little experience in that business,--that there isa desire to hear what I think on some subject, though I may be the greatest fool in the country,--and not that I should say pleasant things merely, or such as an audience will assent to; and I resolve, accordingly, that I will give them a strong dose of myself. They have sent for me, and engaged to pay for me, and I am determined that they shall have me, though I bore them beyond all precedent.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Country, Strong, Thinking

  Henry David Thoreau (2000). “Walden and Other Writings: (A Modern Library E-Book)”, p.753, Modern Library

• Every sunset I witness inspires me with the desire to go to West as distant and as fair as that which the sun goes down. Eastward I go only by force; but westward I go free.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Sunset, Inspire, Desire

• And pray what more can a reasonable man desire, in peaceful times, in ordinary noons, than a sufficient number of ears of green sweet corn boiled, with the addition of salt?

  Henry David Thoreau

  Sweet, Men, Numbers

  Henry David Thoreau, Nancy L. Rosenblum (1996). “Thoreau: Political Writings”, p.66, Cambridge University Press

You May Also Like:

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Walt Whitman

Margaret Fuller

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Leo Tolstoy

Herman Melville

Mahatma Gandhi