Henry David Thoreau Quotes About Style

• Every man is the builder of a temple, called his body, to the god he worships, after a style purely his own, nor can he get off by hammering marble instead. We are all sculptors and painters, and our material is our own flesh and blood and bones. Any nobleness begins at once to refine a man's features, any meanness or sensuality to imbrute them.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Men, Blood, Style

  1854 Walden, or Life in the Woods,'Higher Laws'.

• After all, I believe it is the style of thought entirely, and the style of expression, which makes the difference in books.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Believe, Book, Reading

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.2129, Delphi Classics

• Much of our poetry has the very best manners, but no character.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Character, Poetry, Style

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.279, Delphi Classics

• We are often struck by the force and precision of style to which hard-working men, unpracticed in writing, easily attain when required to make the effort. As if plainness and vigor and sincerity, the ornaments of style, were better learned on the farm and in the workshop than in the schools. The sentences written by such rude hands are nervous and tough, like hardened thongs, the sinews of the deer, or the roots of the pine.

  Henry David Thoreau

  School, Hard Work, Writing

  Henry David Thoreau (2000). “Walden and Other Writings: (A Modern Library E-Book)”, p.385, Modern Library

• All men are really most attracted by the beauty of plain speech, and they even write in a florid style in imitation of this. Theyprefer to be misunderstood rather than to come short of its exuberance.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Beauty, Writing, Men

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “The Essential Thoreau”, p.516, Simon and Schuster

• Steady labor with the hands, which engrosses the attention also, is unquestionably the best method of removing palaver and sentimentality out of one's style, both of speaking and writing.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Writing, Hands, Style

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “The Essential Thoreau”, p.517, Simon and Schuster

• No man's thoughts are new, but the style of their expression is the never-failing novelty which cheers and refreshes men. If we were to answer the question, whether the mass of men, as we know them, talk as the standard authors and reviewers write, or rather as this man writes, we should say that he alone begins to write their language at all.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Cheer, Writing, Men

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “The Essential Thoreau”, p.272, Simon and Schuster

• Very few men can speak of Nature, for instance, with any truth. They overstep her modesty, somehow or other, and confer no favor.They do not speak a good word for her. Most cry better than they speak, and you can get more nature out of them by pinching than by addressing them. The surliness with which the woodchopper speaks of his woods, handling them as indifferently as his axe, is better than the mealy-mouthed enthusiasm of the lover of nature. Better that the primrose by the river's brim be a yellow primrose, and nothing more, than that it be something less.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Nature, Men, Rivers

  Henry David Thoreau (2016). “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers”, p.76, Xist Publishing

• The most attractive sentences are, perhaps, not the wisest, but the surest and roundest. They are spoken firmly and conclusively,as if the speaker had a right to know what he says, and if not wise, they have at least been well learned.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Wise, Style, Oratory

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “The Essential Thoreau”, p.516, Simon and Schuster

• Nature is mythical and mystical always, and works with the license and extravagance of genius. She has her luxurious and florid style as well as art.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Art, Nature, Style

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.953, Delphi Classics

• As for style of writing, if one has anything to say, it drops from him simply and directly, as a stone falls to the ground.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Fall, Writing, Style

  1857 Letter to Daniel Ricketson, 18 Aug.

• When we consider the weak and nerveless periods of some literary men, who perchance in feet and inches come up to the standard oftheir race, and are not deficient in girth also, we are amazed at the immense sacrifice of thews and sinews. What! these proportions, these bones,--and this their work! Hands which could have felled an ox have hewed this fragile matter which would not have tasked a lady's fingers! Can this be a stalwart man's work, who has a marrow in his back and a tendon Achilles in his heel?

  Henry David Thoreau

  Women, Sacrifice, Feet

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.996, Delphi Classics

• Translate a book a dozen times from one language to another, and what becomes of its style? Most books would be worn out and disappear in this ordeal. The pen which wrote it is soon destroyed, but the poem survives.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Book, Style, Would Be

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “The Essential Thoreau”, p.272, Simon and Schuster

• If you indulge in long periods, you must be sure to have a snapper at the end.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Indulge In, Long, Style

  Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Familiar Letters (Annotated Edition)”, p.240, Jazzybee Verlag

• Every sentence is the result of a long probation.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Long, Style, Results

  Henry David Thoreau (1873). “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers”, p.111

• When I hear the hypercritical quarreling about grammar and style, the position of the particles, etc., etc., stretching or contracting every speaker to certain rules of theirs. I see that they forget that the first requisite and rule is that expression shall be vital and natural, as much as the voice of a brute or an interjection: first of all, mother tongue; and last of all, artificial or father tongue. Essentially your truest poetic sentence is as free and lawless as a lamb's bleat.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Mother, Father, Writing

  Henry David Thoreau (2006). “Thoreau and the Art of Life: Precepts and Principles”, p.13, Heron Dance Press

• There is a sort of homely truth and naturalness in some books which is very rare to find, and yet looks cheap enough. There may benothing lofty in the sentiment, or fine in the expression, but it is careless country talk. Homeliness is almost as great a merit in a book as in a house, if the reader would abide there. It is next to beauty, and a very high art. Some have this merit only.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Country, Art, Book

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “The Essential Thoreau”, p.518, Simon and Schuster

• Carlyle must undoubtedly plead guilty to the charge of mannerism. He not only has his vein, but his peculiar manner of working it.He has a style which can be imitated, and sometimes is an imitator of himself.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Style, Veins, Peculiar

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “The Essential Thoreau”, p.276, Simon and Schuster

• When I hear the hypercritical quarreling about grammar and style, the position of the particles, etc., etc... I see that they forget that the first requisite and rule is that expression shall be vital and natural.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Expression, Style, Firsts

  Henry David Thoreau (1999). “Uncommon Learning: Thoreau on Education”, p.106, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

• Whose are the truly labored sentences? From the weak and flimsy periods of the politician and literary man, we are glad to turn even to the description of work, the simple record of the month's labor in the farmer's almanac, to restore our tone and spirits.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Simple, Men, Style

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “The Essential Thoreau”, p.517, Simon and Schuster

• Who cares what a man's style is, so it is intelligible,--as intelligible as his thought. Literally and really, the style is no more than the stylus, the pen he writes with; and it is not worth scraping and polishing, and gilding, unless it will write his thoughts the better for it. It is something for use, and not to look at. The question for us is, not whether Pope had a fine style, wrote with a peacock's feather, but whether he uttered useful thoughts.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Writing, Men, Style

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “The Essential Thoreau”, p.272, Simon and Schuster

• A true poem is distinguished not so much by a felicitous expression, or any thought it suggests, as by the atmosphere which surrounds it. Most have beauty of outline merely, and are striking as the form and bearing of a stranger; but true verses come toward us indistinctly, as the very breath of all friendliness, and envelop us in their spirit and fragrance.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Beauty, Expression, Poetry

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.279, Delphi Classics

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