Henry David Thoreau Quotes About Office

• Others - as most legislators, politicians, lawyers, ministers, and office-holders - serve the state chiefly with their heads; and, as they rarely make any moral distinctions, they are as likely to serve the devil, without intending it, as God. A very few - as heroes, patriots, martyrs, reformers in the great sense, and men - serve the state with their consciences also, and so necessarily resist it for the most part.

  Henry David Thoreau

  God, Hero, Men

  Henry David Thoreau, Nancy L. Rosenblum (1996). “Thoreau: Political Writings”, p.3, Cambridge University Press

• If the tax-gatherer, or any other public officer, asks me, as one has done, "But what shall I do?" my answer is, "If you really wish to do anything, resign your office." When the subject has refused allegiance, and the officer has resigned his office, then the revolution is accomplished.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Office, Wish, Done

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “The Essential Thoreau”, p.294, Simon and Schuster

• Even the utmost good-will and harmony and practical kindness are not sufficient for Friendship, for Friends do not live in harmony merely, as some say, but in melody. We do not wish for Friends to feed and clothe our bodies-neighbors are kind enough for that-but to do the like office to our spirits.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Best Friend, Kindness, Office

  Henry David Thoreau (2017). “Journeys, Adventures & Life in Harmony with Nature – 6 Book Collection (Illustrated): Including Walden, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, The Maine Woods, Cape Cod, A Yankee in Canada & Canoeing in the Wilderness - North American Highlands Series”, p.199, e-artnow

• If private men are obliged to perform the offices of government, to protect the weak and dispense justice, then the government becomes only a hired man, or clerk, to perform menial or indifferent services.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Men, Office, Justice

  Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Citizen Thoreau: Walden, Civil Disobedience, Life Without Principle, Slavery in Massachusetts, A Plea for Captain John Brown”, p.249, Graphic Arts Books

• The English did not come to America from a mere love of adventure, nor to truck with or convert the savages, nor to hold offices under the crown, as the French to a great extent did, but to live in earnest and with freedom.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Freedom, Adventure, America

  Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson (1866). “A Yankee in Canada: With Anti-slavery and Reform Papers”, p.62

• Give me the old familiar world, post-office and all, with this ever new self, with this infinite expectation and faith, which does not know when it is beaten.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Faith, Inspiration, Self

  Henry David Thoreau, Odell Shepard (1961). “The Heart of Thoreau's Journals”, p.201, Courier Corporation

• I have traveled a good deal in Concord; and everywhere, in shops, and offices, and fields, the inhabitants have appeared to me to be doing penance in a thousand remarkable ways.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Office, Way, Penance

  Henry David Thoreau (1882). “Walden”, p.9

• In proportion as our inward life fails, we go more constantly and desperately to the post office. You may depend on it, that the poor fellow who walks away with the greatest number of letters, proud of his extensive correspondence, has not heard from himself this long while.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Numbers, Office, Long

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “The Essential Thoreau”, p.416, Simon and Schuster

• I have travelled a good deal in Concord; and everywhere, in shops, and offices, and fields, the inhabitants have appeared to me tobe doing penance in a thousand remarkable ways.... The twelve labors of Hercules were trifling in comparison with those which my neighbors have undertaken; for they were only twelve, and had an end; but I could never see that these men slew or captured any monster or finished any labor.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Men, Office, Monsters

  Henry David Thoreau (2016). “Walden”, p.6, Xist Publishing

• For my part, I could easily do without the post-office. I think that there are very few important communications made through it.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Communication, Thinking, Office

  Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.203, Penguin

• I, who cannot stay in my chamber for a single day without acquiring some rust,... confess that I am astonished at the power of endurance, to say nothing of the moral insensibility, of my neighbors who confine themselves to shops and offices the whole day for weeks and months, aye, and years almost together. I know not what manner of stuff they are of,--sitting there now at three o'clock in the afternoon, as if it were three o'clock in the morning.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Morning, Work, Years

• There is a patent office at the seat of government of the universe, whose managers are as much interested in the dispersion of seeds as anybody at Washington can be, and their operations are infinitely more extensive and regular.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Government, Office, Patents

  Henry David Thoreau (1992). “The Essays of Henry David Thoreau”, p.166, Rowman & Littlefield

• An efficient and valuable man does what he can, whether the community pay him for it or not. The inefficient offer their inefficiency to the highest bidder, and are forever expecting to be put into office. One would suppose that they were rarely disappointed.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Men, Office, Community

  Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Citizen Thoreau: Walden, Civil Disobedience, Life Without Principle, Slavery in Massachusetts, A Plea for Captain John Brown”, p.216, Graphic Arts Books

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