Henry David Thoreau Quotes About Evil

• There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Courage, Fall, Learning

  Walden ch. 1 (1854)

• No human being, past the thoughtless age of boyhood, will wantonly murder any creature which holds its life by the same tenure that he does.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Life, Learning, Knowledge

  Henry David Thoreau, Linda Corrente (1984). “Henry David Thoreau's Walden”, Barrons Educational Series Incorporated

• There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root, and it may be that he who bestows the largest amount of time and money on the needy is doing the most by his mode of life to produce that misery which he strives in vain to relieve.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Sad, Roots, Evil

  Henry David Thoreau (1882). “Walden”, p.120

• What is the price-current of an honest man and patriot to-day? They hesitate, and they regret, and sometimes they petition; but they do nothing in earnest and with effect. They will wait, well disposed, for others to remedy the evil, that they may no longer have it to regret. At most, they give only a cheap vote, and a feeble countenance and Godspeed, to the right, as it goes by them.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Regret, Men, Evil

  Henry David Thoreau (2012). “Civil Disobedience and Other Essays”, p.5, Courier Corporation

• I saw a delicate flower had grown up two feet high
  between the horses' feet and the wheel-track.
  Which Dakin's and Maynard's wagons had
  Passed over many a time.
  An inch more to the right or left had sealed its fate,
  Or an inch higher. Yet it lived and flourished,
  As much as if it had a thousand acres
  Of untrodden space around it, and never
  Knew the danger it incurred.
  It did not borrow trouble, nor invite an
  Evil fate by apprehending it.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Life, Horse, Flower

  "The Heart of Thoreau's Journals".

• They will wait, well disposed, for others to remedy evil, that they may no longer have have it to regret.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Regret, Evil, Waiting

• It is best to avoid the beginnings of evil.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Evil, Literature, Vengeance

  Henry David Thoreau (2016). “Walden”, p.49, Xist Publishing

• A worm is as good a traveler as a grasshopper or a cricket, and a much wiser settler. With all their activity these do not hop away from drought nor forward to summer. We do not avoid evil by fleeing before it, but by rising above or diving below its plane; as the worm escapes drought and frost by boring a few inches deeper.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Summer, Travel, Evil

  Henry David Thoreau (2016). “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers”, p.217, Xist Publishing

• A lady once offered me a mat, but as I had no room to spare within the house, nor time to spare within or without to shake it, I declined it, preferring to wipe my feet on the sod before my door. It is best to avoid the beginnings of evil.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Doors, Feet, Evil

  Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Citizen Thoreau: Walden, Civil Disobedience, Life Without Principle, Slavery in Massachusetts, A Plea for Captain John Brown”, p.49, Graphic Arts Books

• We are double-edged blades, and every time we whet our virtue the return stroke straps our vice. Where is the skillful swordsman who can give clean wounds, and not rip up his work with the other edge?

  Henry David Thoreau

  Rip, Evil, Giving

  Henry David Thoreau (1996). “The nature writings of Henry David Thoreau”

• If ever I did a man any goodof course it was something exceptional and insignificant compared with the good or evil which I am constantly doing by being what I am.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Men, Evil, Deeds

• There is no ill which may not be dissipated, like the dark, if you let in a stronger light upon it.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Dark, Light, Evil

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “The Essential Thoreau”, p.198, Simon and Schuster

• Concord is just as idiotic as ever in relation to the spirits and their knockings. Most people here believe in a spiritual world ... in spirits which the very bullfrogs in our meadows would blackball. Their evil genius is seeing how low it can degrade them. The hooting of owls, the croaking of frogs, is celestial wisdom in comparison.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Spiritual, Wisdom, Believe

  Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Familiar Letters (Annotated Edition)”, p.153, Jazzybee Verlag

• The tree of Knowledge is a Tree of Knowledge of good and evil.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Evil, Tree, Good And Evil

  Henry David Thoreau (1862). “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers. By Henry D. Thoreau”, p.381

• It is a momentous fact that a man may be good, or he may be bad; his life may be true, or it may be false; it may be either a shame or a glory to him. The good man builds himself up; the bad man destroys himself.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Truth, Men, Evil

  Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Familiar Letters (Annotated Edition)”, p.133, Jazzybee Verlag

• If a man were to place himself in an attitude to bear manfully the greatest evil that can be inflicted on him, he would find suddenly that there was no such evil to bear; his brave back would go a-begging.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Attitude, Men, Evil

  Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Familiar Letters (Annotated Edition)”, p.190, Jazzybee Verlag

• Since all things are good, men fail at last to distinguish which is the bane and which the antidote.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Knowledge, Men, Evil

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.197, Delphi Classics

• I never dreamed of any enormity greater than I have committed. I never knew, and never shall know, a worse man than myself.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Dream, Men, Evil

  Henry David Thoreau (2016). “Walden”, p.56, Xist Publishing

• So far as my experience goes, travelers generally exaggerate the difficulties of the way. Like most evil, the difficulty is imaginary; for what's the hurry?

  Henry David Thoreau

  Travel, Evil, Optimism

  Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.101, Penguin

• All health and success does me good, however far off and withdrawn it may appear; all disease and failure helps to make me sad anddoes me evil, however much sympathy it may have with me or I with it.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Success, Health, Evil

  Henry David Thoreau (2016). “Walden”, p.56, Xist Publishing

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