Henry David Thoreau’s diary, 1839

I saw the civil sun drying earth's tears, Her tears of joy, that only faster flowed. Fain would I stretch me by the highway-side, To thaw and trickle with the…

The prospect of our river valley from Tahatawan Cliff appeared to me again in my dreams. Last night, as I lay gazing with shut eyes Into the golden land of dreams,…

The deeds of king and meanest hedger Stand side by side in heaven's ledger. 'Twill soon appear if we but look At evening into earth's day-book, Which way the great…

When the poetic frenzy seizes us, we run and scratch with our pen, delighting, like the cock, in the dust we make, but do not detect where the jewel lies, which…

It takes a man to make a room silent.

When the world grows old by the chimney-side, Then forth to the youngling rocks I glide, Where over the water, and over the land, The bells are booming on either…

Hark! hark! from out the thickest fog Warbles with might and main The fearless shrike, as all agog To find in fog his gain. His steady sails he never furls At any…

He must be something more than natural,—even supernatural. Nature will not speak through but along with him. His voice will not proceed from her midst, but,…

The atmosphere of morning gives a healthy hue to our prospects. Disease is a sluggard that overtakes, never encounters, us. We have the start each day, and may…

The tediousness and detail of execution never occur to the genius projecting; it always antedates the completion of its work. It condescends to give time a few…

There goes a six-horse team, and a man by its side. He has rolled out of his cradle into a Tom-and-Jerry, and goes about his business while Nature goes about hers,…

Fat roots of pine lying in rich veins as of gold or silver, even in old pastures where you would least expect it, make you realize that you live in the youth of the…

There is a terra firma in society as well as in geography, some whose ports you may make by dead reckoning in all weather. All the rest are but floating and…

Why should we concern ourselves with what has happened to us, and the unaccountable fickleness of events, and not rather [with] how we have happened to the…

If we see the reality in things, of what moment is the superficial and apparent? Take the earth and all the interests it has known,—what are they beside one deep…

Of some illuminated pictures which I saw last evening, one representing the plain of Babylon, with only a heap of brick-dust in the centre, and an uninterrupted…

The farmer keeps pace with his crops and the revolutions of the seasons, but the merchant with the fluctuations of trade. Observe how differently they walk in the…

Virtue is the very heart and lungs of vice: it cannot stand up but it lean on virtue.

We say justly that the weak person is flat; for, like all flat substances, he does not stand in the direction of his strength, that is on his edge, but affords a…

Who knows how incessant a surveillance a strong man may maintain over himself,—how far subject passion and appetite to reason, and lead the life his imagination…

I sit here this fourth of June, looking out on men and nature from this that I call my perspective window, through which all things are seen in their true…

I have within the last few days come into contact with a pure, uncompromising spirit, that is somewhere wandering in the atmosphere, but settles not positively…

Lately, alas, I knew a gentle boy, Whose features all were cast in Virtue's mould, As one she had designed for Beauty's toy, But after manned him for her own…

With cunning plates the polished leaves were decked, Each one a window to the poet's world, So rich a prospect that you might suspect In that small space all…

At length we leave the river and take to the road which leads to the hilltop, if by any means we may spy out what manner of earth we inhabit. East, west, north, and…

Up this pleasant stream let's row For the livelong summer's day, Sprinkling foam where'er we go In wreaths as white as driven snow. Ply the oars! away! away! Now we…

Come let's roam the breezy pastures, Where the freest zephyrs blow, Batten on the oak tree's rustle, And the pleasant insect bustle, Dripping with the streamlet's…

Nature doth have her dawn each day, But mine are far between; Content, I cry, for, sooth to say, Mine brightest are, I ween. For when my sun doth deign to rise,…

There is no remedy for love but to love more.

Made seven miles, and moored our boat on the west side of a little rising ground which in the spring forms an island in the river, the sun going down on one hand,…

Under an oak on the bank of the canal in Chelmsford. From Ball's Hill to Billerica meeting-house the river is a noble stream of water, flowing between gentle hills…

Camped in Merrimack, on the west bank, by a deep ravine.

In Bedford, on the west bank, opposite a large rock, above Coos Falls.

Hooksett, east bank, two or three miles below the village, opposite Mr. Mitchel's.

Walked to Concord [N. H.], 10 miles.

By stage to Plymouth, 40 miles, and on foot to Tilton's inn, Thornton. The scenery commences on Sanbornton Square, whence the White Mountains are first visible. In…

Walked from Thornton through Peeling and Lincoln to Franconia. In Lincoln visited Stone Flume and Basin, and in Franconia the Notch, and saw the Old Man of the…

Walked from Franconia to Thomas J. Crawford's.

At Crawford's.

Ascended the mountain and rode to Conway.

Rode to Concord.

Rode to Hooksett and rowed to Bedford, N. H., or rather to the northern part of Merrimack, near the ferry, by a large island, near which we camped.

Rowed and sailed to Concord, about 50 miles.

Nature never makes haste; her systems revolve at an even pace. The bud swells imperceptibly, without hurry or confusion, as though the short spring days were an…

Nature will bear the closest inspection. She invites us to lay our eye level with her smallest leaf, and take an insect view of its plain.

There was one man lived his own healthy Attic life in those days. The words that have come down to us evidence that their speaker was a seer in his day and…

I was not aware till to-day of a rising and risen generation. Children appear to me as raw as the fresh fungi on a fence rail. By what degrees of consanguinity is…

Prometheus' answer to Io's question, who has bound him to the rock, is a good instance:— Βούλουμα μὲν τὸ δῖον, Ἡφαίστου δὲ χείρ. (The will indeed of Zeus, of Vulcan…

Make the most of your regrets; never smother your sorrow, but tend and cherish it till it come to have a separate and integral interest. To regret deeply is to live…

There is nowhere any apology for despondency. Always there is life which, rightly lived, implies a divine satisfaction. I am soothed by the rain-drops on the…

Light-hearted, thoughtless, shall I take my way, When I to thee this being have resigned, Well knowing where, upon a future day, With us'rer's craft more than…

Linnæus, setting out for Lapland, surveys his "comb" and "spare shirt," "leather breeches," and "gauze cap to keep off gnats," with as much complacency as…

Many brave men have there been, thank Fortune, but I shall never grow brave by comparison. When I remember myself I shall forget them.

A rare landscape immediately suggests a suitable inhabitant, whose breath shall be its wind, whose moods its seasons, and to whom it will always be fair. To be…