Henry David Thoreau Quotes About Excuses

• If I seem to boast more than is becoming, my excuse is that I brag for humanity rather than for myself.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Humanity, Literature, Becoming

  Henry David Thoreau (2009). “Walden”, p.32, Cosimo, Inc.

• I have just been through the process of killing a cistudo for the sake of science; but I cannot excuse myself for this murder, and see that such actions are inconsistent with the poetic perception, however they may serve science, and will affect the quality of my observations. I pray that I may walk more innocently and serenely through nature. No reasoning whatever reconciles me to this act. It affects my day injuriously. I have lost some self-respect. I have a murderer's experience to a degree.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Philosophical, Animal, Self

  Henry David Thoreau (1999). “Material Faith: Thoreau on Science”, p.70, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

• The man of genius knows what he is aiming at; nobody else knows. And he alone knows when something comes between him and his object. In the course of generations, however, men will excuse you for not doing as they do, if you will bring enough to pass in your own way.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Men, Excuse You, Generations

  Henry David Thoreau, Odell Shepard (1961). “The Heart of Thoreau's Journals”, p.204, Courier Corporation

• My excuse for not lecturing against the use of tobacco is, that I never chewed it; that is a penalty which reformed tobacco-chewers have to pay; though there are things enough I have chewed which I could lecture against.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Reform, Use, Pay

  Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Citizen Thoreau: Walden, Civil Disobedience, Life Without Principle, Slavery in Massachusetts, A Plea for Captain John Brown”, p.54, Graphic Arts Books

• Comparatively, we can excuse any offense against the heart, but not against the imagination. The imagination knows--nothing escapes its glance from out its eyry--and it controls the breast.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Heart, Imagination, Excuse

  Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Familiar Letters (Annotated Edition)”, p.159, Jazzybee Verlag

• I do not wish to quarrel with any man or nation. I do not wish to split hairs, to make fine distinctions, or set myself up as better than my neighbors. I seek rather, I may say, even an excuse for conforming to the laws of the land. I am but too ready to conform to them. Indeed, I have reason to suspect myself on this head; and each year, as the tax-gatherer comes round, I find myself disposed to review the acts and position of the general and State governments, and the spirit of the people, to discover a pretext for conformity.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Men, Hair, Years

  Henry David Thoreau (2004). “Walden and Other Writings”, p.107, Bantam Classics

• As for fowling, during the last years that I carried a gun my excuse was that I was studying ornithology, and sought only new or rare birds. But I confess that I am now inclined to think that there is a finer way of studying ornithology than this. It requires so much closer attention to the habits of the birds, that, if for that reason only, I have been willing to omit the gun.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Gun, Thinking, Hunting

  Henry David Thoreau (2016). “Walden”, p.152, Xist Publishing

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