Henry David Thoreau Quotes About Gardens

• I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Inspirational, Life, Death

  Walden ch. 2 (1854)

• When we walk, we naturally go to the fields and woods: what would become of us, if we walked only in a garden or a mall?

  Henry David Thoreau

  Nature, Garden, Woods

  Henry David Thoreau (2016). “Essays of Henry David Thoreau - Walking”, p.8, Editora Dracaena

• If a man walks in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer. But if he spends his days as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making the earth bald before her time, he is deemed an industrious and enterprising citizen.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Nature, Science, Men

  "Life Without Principle" (1863)

• Though I do not believe that a plant will spring up where no seed has been, I have great faith in a seed. Convince me that you have a seed there, and I am prepared to expect wonders.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Spring, Believe, Cutting

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.1236, Delphi Classics

• I once had a sparrow alight upon my shoulder for a moment, while I was hoeing in a village garden, and I felt that I was more distinguished by that circumstance that I should have been by any epaulet I could have worn.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Nature, Animal, Garden

  'Walden' (1854) 'Winter Visitors'

• The wilderness is near as well as dear to every man. Even the oldest villages are indebted to the border of wild wood which surrounds them, more than to the gardens of men. There is something indescribably inspiriting and beautiful in the aspect of the forest skirting and occasionally jutting into the midst of new towns, which, like the sand-heaps of fresh fox-burrows, have sprung up in their midst. The very uprightness of the pines and maples asserts the ancient rectitude and vigor of nature. Our lives need the relief of such a background, where the pine flourishes and the jay still screams.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Beautiful, Nature, Men

  Henry David Thoreau (2016). “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers”, p.120, Xist Publishing

• Nature abhors a vacuum, and if I can only walk with sufficient carelessness I am sure to be filled.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Wisdom, Nature, Science

  Henry David Thoreau (1960). “H. D. Thoreau, a Writer's Journal”, p.221, Courier Corporation

• Methinks my own soul must be a bright invisible green.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Garden, Soul, Religion

  Henry David Thoreau (2016). “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers”, p.169, Xist Publishing

• 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

• Shall I not rejoice also at the abundance of the weeds whose seeds are the granary of the birds?

  Henry David Thoreau

  Weed, Garden, Bird

  Henry David Thoreau, Joseph O. Valentine, Thoreau Society (2001). “Thoreau on Land: Nature's Canvas”, p.59, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

• I was determined to know beans.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Education, Teaching, Learning

  1854 Walden, or Life in the Woods,'The Bean-Field'.

• A thrumming of piano-strings beyond the gardens and through the elms. At length the melody steals into my being. I know not when it began to occupy me. By some fortunate coincidence of thought or circumstance I am attuned to the universe, I am fitted to hear, my being moves in a sphere of melody, my fancy and imagination are excited to an inconceivable degree. This is no longer the dull earth on which I stood.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Music, Moving, Garden

  Henry David Thoreau (1960). “H. D. Thoreau, a Writer's Journal”, p.91, Courier Corporation

• Cultivate poverty like a garden herb, like sage. Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends. Turn the old; return to them. Things do not change; we change. Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts. God will see that you do not want society.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Life, Garden, Clothes

  Henry David Thoreau (2009). “Walden”, p.212, Cosimo, Inc.

• Nature will bear the closest inspection. She invites us to lay our eye level with her smallest leaf, and take an insect view of its plain.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Nature, Eye, Garden

  Henry David Thoreau, Odell Shepard (1961). “The Heart of Thoreau's Journals”, p.9, Courier Corporation

• Gardening is civil and social, but it wants the vigor and freedom of the forest and the outlaw.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Garden, Environmental, Vigor

  Henry David Thoreau (2016). “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers”, p.39, Xist Publishing

• When we walk, we naturally go to the fields and woods: what would become of us, if we walked only in a garden or a mall? Even some sects of philosophers have felt the necessity of importing the woods to themselves, since they did not go to the woods. They planted groves and walks of Plantanes, where they took subdiales ambulationes in porticos open to the air. Of course, it is of no use to direct our steps to the woods, if they do not carry us thither.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Garden, Air, Use

  Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.395, Penguin

• Cultivate poverty like a garden herb, like sage.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Garden, Simplicity, Simple Life

  Henry David Thoreau (2009). “Walden”, p.212, Cosimo, Inc.

• Within the memory of many of my townsmen the road near which my house stands resounded with the laugh and gossip of inhabitants, and the woods which border it were notched and dotted here and there with their little gardens and dwellings, though it was then much more shut in by the forest than now.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Memories, Garden, Dwelling

  Henry David Thoreau (2000). “Walden and Other Writings: (A Modern Library E-Book)”, p.249, Modern Library

• Perfect alchemists I keep who can transmute substances without end, and thus the corner of my garden is an inexhaustible treasure-chest. Here you can dig, not gold, but the value which gold merely represents; and there is no Signor Blitz about it.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Garden, Perfect, Alchemist

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.1236, Delphi Classics

• The ocean is a wilderness reaching round the globe, wilder than a Bengal jungle, and fuller of monsters, washing the very wharves of our cities and the gardens of our sea-side residences.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Ocean, Garden, Sea

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.826, Delphi Classics

You May Also Like:

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Walt Whitman

Margaret Fuller

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Leo Tolstoy

Herman Melville

Mahatma Gandhi