Henry David Thoreau Quotes About Virtue

• What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lives within us.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

• We are double-edged blades, and every time we whet our virtue the return stroke strops our vice.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Time, Integrity, Vices

  Henry David Thoreau (1975). “Early Essays and Miscellanies”, p.224, Princeton University Press

• Even voting for the right is doing nothing for it. It is only expressing to men feebly your desire that it should prevail. A wise man will not leave the right to the mercy of chance, nor wish it to prevail through the power of the majority. There is but little virtue in the action of masses of men.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Wise, Men, Voting

  Henry David Thoreau (1942). “Civil Disobedience”, p.6, Hayes Barton Press

• My friend is one who takes me for what I am. A stranger takes me for something else than what I am. . . . What men call social virtues, good fellowship, is commonly but the virtue of pigs in a litter which lie close together to keep each other warm. It brings men together in crowds and mobs in bar-rooms and elsewhere, but it does not deserve the name of virtue.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Friendship, Lying, Men

  Henry David Thoreau, Bradford Torrey, Franklin Benjamin Sanborn (1906). “Journal, ed. by Bradford Torrey, 1837-1846, 1850-Nov. 3, 1861”

• Somehow strangely the vice of men gets well represented and protected but their virtue has none to plead its cause - nor any charter of immunities and rights.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Get Well, Men, Rights

  Henry David Thoreau, David Gross (2007). “The Price of Freedom: Political Philosophy from Thoreau's Journals”, p.30, David M Gross

• What men call social virtues, good fellowship, is commonly but the virtue of pigs in a litter, which lie close together to keep each other warm.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Lying, Men, Pigs

  Henry David Thoreau, Odell Shepard (1961). “The Heart of Thoreau's Journals”, p.100, Courier Corporation

• Philanthropy is almost the only virtue which is sufficiently appreciated by mankind.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Life, Charity, Appreciated

  Henry David Thoreau (1882). “Walden”, p.121

• They who assert the purest right, and consequently are most dangerous to a corrupt State, commonly have not spent much time accumulating property. The rich man is always sold to the institution which makes him rich. Absolutely speaking, the more money, the less virtue; for money comes between a man and his objects, and obtains them for him; and it was certainly no great virtue to obtain it.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Men, Independence, Rich

• Our whole life is startlingly moral. There is never an instant's truce between virtue and vice.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Life, Vices, Morality

  Henry David Thoreau (2000). “Walden and Other Writings: (A Modern Library E-Book)”, p.214, Modern Library

• We cannot well do without our sins; they are the highway of our virtue.

  Henry David Thoreau

  War, Sin, Conflict

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Quotable Thoreau: An A to Z Glossary of Inspiring Quotations from Henry David Thoreau”, p.88, BookBaby

• The rich man is always sold to the institution which makes him rich. Absolutely speaking, the more money, the less virtue.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Money, Men, Rich

  Henry David Thoreau (1942). “Civil Disobedience”, p.11, Hayes Barton Press

• A wise man will not leave the right to the mercy of chance, nor wish it to prevail through the power of the majority. There is but little virtue in the action of masses of men. When the majority shall at length vote for the abolition of slavery, it will be because they are indifferent to slavery, or because there is but little slavery left to be abolished by their vote. They will then be the only slaves. Only his vote can hasten the abolition of slavery who asserts his own freedom by his vote.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Wise, Wisdom, Men

  Henry David Thoreau (1942). “Civil Disobedience”, p.6, Hayes Barton Press

• The virtue which we appreciate, we to some extent appropriate.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Appreciation, Appreciate, Virtue

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.211, Delphi Classics

• The virtues of a superior man are like the wind; the virtues of a common man are like the grass; the grass, when the wind passes over it, bends.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Men, Wind, Common

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.412, Delphi Classics

• A Friend is one who incessantly pays us the compliment of expecting from us all the virtues, and who can appreciate them in us.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Appreciate, Pay, Compliment

  Henry David Thoreau (2016). “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers”, p.190, Xist Publishing

• That virtue we appreciate is as much ours as another s. We see so much only as we possess.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Appreciate, Virtue

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.1983, Delphi Classics

• Still we live meanly, like ants; though the fable tells us that we were long ago changed into men; like pygmies we fight with cranes; it is error upon error, and clout upon clout, and our best virtue has for its occasion a superfluous and evitable wretchedness. Our life is frittered away by detail.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Life, Fighting, Men

  Henry David Thoreau (2009). “Walden”, p.59, Cosimo, Inc.

• There may be an excess of cultivation as well as of anything else, until civilization becomes pathetic. A highly cultivated man,--all whose bones can be bent! whose heaven-born virtues are but good manners!

  Henry David Thoreau

  Men, Civilization, Heaven

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

• The slight reproach to which the virtue of patriotism is commonly liable, the noble are most likely to incur.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Patriotism, Noble, Virtue

  Henry David Thoreau (1942). “Civil Disobedience”, p.8, Hayes Barton Press

• There are nine hundred and ninety-nine patrons of virtue to one virtuous man.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Men, Ninety Nine, Virtue

  Henry David Thoreau, Nancy L. Rosenblum (1996). “Thoreau: Political Writings”, p.6, Cambridge University Press

• What is chastity? How shall a man know if he is chaste? He shall not know it. We have heard of this virtue, but we know not what it is.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Knowledge, Men, Virtue

  Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.274, Penguin

• How long shall we sit in our porticoes practising idle and musty virtues, which any work would make impertinent? As if one were tobegin the day with long-suffering, and hire a man to hoe his potatoes; and in the afternoon go forth to practise Christian meekness and charity with goodness aforethought!

  Henry David Thoreau

  Christian, Men, Long

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.516, Delphi Classics

• If it is the result of a pure love, there can be nothing sensual in marriage. Chastity is something positive, not negative. It isthe virtue of the married especially. All lusts or base pleasures must give place to loftier delights. They who meet as superior beings cannot perform the deeds of inferior ones.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Marriage, Giving, Lust

• I never was so rapid in my virtue but my vice kept up with me.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Vices, Virtue, Rapids

  Henry David Thoreau, Odell Shepard (1961). “The Heart of Thoreau's Journals”, p.22, Courier Corporation

• To the man who cherishes a secret in his breast, there is a still greater secret unexplored. Our most indifferent acts may be a matter for secrecy, but whatever we do with the utmost truthfulness and integrity, by virtue of its pureness, must be transparent as light.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Integrity, Men, Light

  Henry David Thoreau (2016). “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers”, p.222, Xist Publishing

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