Henry David Thoreau Quotes About Knowledge

• There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Courage, Fall, Learning

  Walden ch. 1 (1854)

• I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Inspirational, Life, Success

  Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.202, Penguin

• What lies before us and what lies behind us are small matters compared to what lies within us.
  And when we bring what is within out into the world, miracles happen.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Inspirational, Confidence, Lying

  Attributed in "The Life You Were Born to Live : A Guide to Finding Your Life Purpose" by Dan Millman, (p. xi), 1995.

• No human being, past the thoughtless age of boyhood, will wantonly murder any creature which holds its life by the same tenure that he does.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Life, Learning, Knowledge

  Henry David Thoreau, Linda Corrente (1984). “Henry David Thoreau's Walden”, Barrons Educational Series Incorporated

• True friendship can afford true knowledge. It does not depend on darkness and ignorance.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Friendship, Best Friend, Ignorance

  Henry David Thoreau (2001). “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers”, p.182, Courier Corporation

• Knowledge does not come to us in details, but in flashes of light from heaven.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Inspiration, Knowledge, Light

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “The Essential Thoreau”, p.419, Simon and Schuster

• Each thought that is welcomed and recorded is a nest egg, by the side of which more will be laid.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Knowledge, Thinking, Eggs

  Henry David Thoreau, Odell Shepard (1961). “The Heart of Thoreau's Journals”, p.73, Courier Corporation

• I should say that the useful results of science had accumulated, but that there had been no accumulation of knowledge, strictly speaking, for posterity; for knowledge is to be acquired only by a corresponding experience. How can we know what we are told merely? Each man can interpret another's experience only by his own.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Knowledge, Science, Men

  "Journeys, Adventures & Life in Harmony with Nature".

• The knowledge of an unlearned man is living and luxuriant like a forest, but covered with mosses and lichens and for the most part inaccessible and going to waste; the knowledge of the man of science is like timber collected in yards for public works, which still supports a green sprout here and there, but even this is liable to dry rot.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Knowledge, Men, Support

  Henry David Thoreau, Odell Shepard (1961). “The Heart of Thoreau's Journals”, p.41, Courier Corporation

• He who is only a traveler learns things at second-hand and by the halves, and is poor authority. We are most interested when science reports what those men already know practically or instinctively, for that alone is a true humanity, or account of human experience.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Travel, Knowledge, Men

  Henry David Thoreau, Michael McCurdy, Terry Tempest Williams (2010). “Walden”, p.118, Shambhala Publications

• The process of discovery is very simple. An unwearied and systematic application of known laws to nature, causes the unknown to reveal themselves. Almost any mode of observation will be successful at last, for what is most wanted is method.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Success, Knowledge, Science

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.271, Delphi Classics

• All perception of truth is the detection of an analogy.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Truth, Learning, Knowledge

  Henry David Thoreau, Odell Shepard (1961). “The Heart of Thoreau's Journals”, p.57, Courier Corporation

• We hear and apprehend only what we already half know.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Education, Knowledge, Half

  Henry David Thoreau, Odell Shepard (1961). “The Heart of Thoreau's Journals”, p.212, Courier Corporation

• Even the facts of science may dust the mind by their dryness, unless they are ... rendered fertile by the dews of fresh and living truth. Knowledge does not come to us by details, but in flashes of light from heaven.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Knowledge, Science, Light

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “The Essential Thoreau”, p.419, Simon and Schuster

• Knowledge is to be acquired only by a corresponding experience. How can we know what we are told merely? Each man can interpret another's experience only by his own.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Communication, Knowledge, Men

  Michael Benjamin Berger, Henry David Thoreau (2000). “Thoreau's Late Career and The Dispersion of Seeds: The Saunterer's Synoptic Vision”, p.83, Camden House

• The greatest gains and values are farthest from being appreciated. We easily come to doubt if they exist. We soon forget them. They are the highest reality.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Truth, Knowledge, Reality

  Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Citizen Thoreau: Walden, Civil Disobedience, Life Without Principle, Slavery in Massachusetts, A Plea for Captain John Brown”, p.132, Graphic Arts Books

• Some creatures are made to see in the dark.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Knowledge, Dark, History

  Henry David Thoreau (2016). “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers”, p.110, Xist Publishing

• There has always been the same amount of light in the world. The new and missing stars, the comets and eclipses, do not affect thegeneral illumination, for only our glasses appreciate them.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Stars, Knowledge, Glasses

  Henry David Thoreau (2016). “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers”, p.110, Xist Publishing

• I keep a mountain anchored off eastward a little way, which I ascend in my dreams both awake and asleep. Its broad base spreads over a village or two, which does not know it; neither does it know them, nor do I when I ascend it. I can see its general outline as plainly now in my mind as that of Wachusett. I do not invent in the least, but state exactly what I see. I find that I go up it when I am light-footed and earnest. It ever smokes like an altar with its sacrifice. I am not aware that a single villager frequents it or knows of it. I keep this mountain to ride instead of a horse.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Dream, Horse, Knowledge

• Men do not fail commonly for want of knowledge, but for want of prudence to give wisdom the preference.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Wisdom, Knowledge, Men

  Henry David Thoreau (2016). “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers”, p.90, Xist Publishing

• Such is always the pursuit of knowledge. The celestial fruits, the golden apples of the Hesperides, are ever guarded by a hundred-headed dragon which never sleeps, so that it is an Herculean labor to pluck them.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Knowledge, Sleep, Dragons

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “The Selected Essays of Henry David Thoreau”, p.216, Simon and Schuster

• The intellect is a cleaver; it discerns and rifts its way into the secrets of things.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Knowledge, Secret, Rift

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Quotable Thoreau: An A to Z Glossary of Inspiring Quotations from Henry David Thoreau”, p.50, BookBaby

• Since all things are good, men fail at last to distinguish which is the bane and which the antidote.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Knowledge, Men, Evil

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.197, Delphi Classics

• What we need to know in any case is very simple.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Wisdom, Knowledge, Simple

  Henry David Thoreau (2016). “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers”, p.90, Xist Publishing

• There is a chasm between knowledge and ignorance which the arches of science can never span.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Ignorance, Knowledge, Science

  Henry David Thoreau (2016). “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers”, p.68, Xist Publishing

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