Henry David Thoreau Quotes About Son

• Not only must we be good, but we must also be good for something.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Good Life, Son, Fundraising

• I know a good woman who thinks that her son lost his life because he took to drinking water only.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Drinking, Food, Son

  Henry David Thoreau (2004). “Walden: 150th Anniversary Illustrated Edition of the American Classic”, p.58, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

• I believe that what so saddens the reformer is not his sympathy with his fellows in distress, but, though he be the holiest son of God, is his private ail. Let this be righted, let the spring come to him, the morning rise over his couch, and he will forsake his generous companions without apology.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Sympathy, Morning, Spring

  Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.194, Penguin

• Every ambitious would-be empire, clarions it abroad that she is conquering the world to bring it peace, security and freedom, and it is sacrificing her sons only for the most noble and humanitarian purposes. That is a lie; and it is an ancient lie, yet generations still rise and believe it.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Lying, Believe, Son

• The poet is no tender slip of fairy stock, who requires peculiar institutions and edicts for his defense, but the toughest son ofearth and of Heaven, and by his greater strength and endurance his fainting companions will recognize the God in him. It is the worshipers of beauty, after all, who have done the real pioneer work of the world.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Strength, Real, Son

  Henry David Thoreau (1873). “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers”, p.361

• You have but little more to do than throw up your cap for entertainment these American days.... Farmers' sons will stare by the hour to see a juggler draw ribbons from his throat, though he tells them it is all deception. Surely, men love darkness rather than light.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Truth, Son, Men

  Henry David Thoreau (2011). “The Natural History Essays”, p.92, Gibbs Smith

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