Henry David Thoreau Quotes About Art

We have collected for you the TOP of Henry David Thoreau's best quotes about Art! Here are collected all the quotes about Art starting from the birthday of the Author – July 12, 1817! We hope you will be inspired to new achievements with our constantly updated collection of quotes. At the moment, this page contains 59 sayings of Henry David Thoreau about Art. We will be happy if you share our collection of quotes with your friends on social networks!
All quotes by Henry David Thoreau: Abolition Abundance Accidents Accomplishment Achievement Acting Addiction Adventure Affairs Affection Age Aging Aids Alcohol Ambition Anarchism Angels Animal Rights Animals Anxiety Appearance Appreciation Architecture Army Art Atheism Atmosphere Attitude Authority Autumn Awareness Beach Beauty Beer Being Alone Being Successful Being Yourself Belief Best Friends Bible Birds Birth Blessings Boat Bones Books Books And Reading Bravery Brothers Business Canvas Caring Cars Cats Change Chaos Character Charity Chastity Cheers Children Choices Christ Christianity Church Civil Disobedience Coincidence College Commitment Common Sense Communication Community Compensation Compliments Composition Confidence Conformity Confusion Conscience Consciousness Conservation Constitution Consumerism Contemplation Cooking Copper Country Courage Creation Creativity Criticism Critics Culture Curiosity Cursing Darkness Death Deception Democracy Demons Depression Design Desire Destiny Determination Devil Diamonds Difficulty Dignity Disappointment Discipline Diversity Dogma Dogs Doubt Dreams Drinking Duty Dying Earth Eating Ecology Economics Economy Education Effort Empiricism Encouraging Enemies Energy Enlightenment Enthusiasm Environment Eternity Ethics Evidence Evil Evolution Excellence Excuses Exercise Expectations Experience Eyes Facts Of Life Failing Failure Faith Fame Family Farming Fashion Fate Fathers Fear Feelings Fighting Finding Yourself Flight Flowers Flying Focus Food Freedom Freedom And Liberty Friends Friendship Funny Future Gardening Gardens Generosity Genius Get Money Giving Giving Up Glory Goals God Gold Good Deeds Good Morning Goodbye Goodness Gossip Grace Graduation Gratitude Greatness Greece Greed Greek Grief Grieving Growth Guns Habits Happiness Hard Work Harmony Hate Healing Health Heart Heaven Heroism Hills Hinduism History Home Honesty Honor Hope Horses House Human Nature Humanity Humility Hunger Hunting Hypocrisy Idleness Ignorance Imagination Immortality Imperfection Impulse Independence Individuality Injustice Innocence Insanity Inspiration Inspirational Inspiring Integrity Intelligence Jesus Jesus Christ Journalism Journey Joy Judging Justice Kindness Knowledge Labor Language Latin Laughter Lawyers Learning Libertarianism Liberty Libraries Life Listening Literature Live Life Loneliness Losing Loss Love Love And Friendship Luck Lying Making Money Management Manhood Mankind Manners Marines Marriage Mathematics Meaning Of Life Meditation Meetings Memories Mental Health Mercy Metals Mindfulness Miracles Mistakes Moderation Money Monument Moon Morality Morning Mortality Mothers Motivation Motivational Mountain Muse Music My Way Mythology Nature Navy Neighbors Obedience Observation Offense Office Old Age Opinions Opportunity Optimism Overcoming Parents Parties Past Patience Patriotism Patriots Peace Perception Perfection Perseverance Personality Perspective Pets Philanthropy Philosophy Physics Pleasure Poetry Police Politicians Politics Positive Poverty Power Praise Prayer Prejudice Preparation Pride Prisons Privacy Progress Property Prophet Protest Prudence Purity Purpose Quality Rain Rainbows Reading Reading Books Reality Rebellion Recognition Reflection Regret Reincarnation Religion Reputation Respect Responsibility Revelations Revolution Rhetoric Rings Risk Running Sabbath Sacrifice Sad Sadness Sailing Saints Sanity Satire School Science Scripture Self Esteem Self Reliance Self Respect Serenity Setting Goals Seven Shame Silence Silver Simple Life Simplicity Sin Sincerity Singing Skins Slavery Slaves Sleep Sloth Social Anxiety Social Responsibility Society Soldiers Solitude Son Songs Sorrow Soul Speculation Spirituality Sports Spring Strength Struggle Students Study Style Success Suffering Summer Sunrise Sunshine Sympathy Taxes Tea Teachers Teaching Technology Temperance Thanksgiving Time Time Management Today Trade Tradition Tragedy Train Transcendentalism Travel True Friends True Love Trust Truth Tyranny Understanding Universe Values Vegetarian Violence Virtue Vision Volunteer Voting Waiting Walking Wall War Water Weakness Wealth Weed Wilderness Wine Winter Wisdom Wit Work Worship Writing Yoga Youth more...
  • To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.

    Henry David Thoreau (1995). “Walden: An Annotated Edition”, p.87, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  • The art of life, of a poet's life, is, not having anything to do, to do something.

    Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Quotable Thoreau: An A to Z Glossary of Inspiring Quotations from Henry David Thoreau”, p.17, BookBaby
  • The imagination, give it the least license, dives deeper and soars higher than Nature goes.

    Henry David Thoreau (2009). “Walden”, p.186, Cosimo, Inc.
  • The great art of life is how to turn the surplus life of the soul into life for the body.

    Henry David Thoreau (2006). “Thoreau and the Art of Life: Precepts and Principles”, p.31, Heron Dance Press
  • If we will admit time into our thoughts at all, the mythologies, those vestiges of ancient poems, wrecks of poems, so to speak, the world's inheritance,... these are the materials and hints for a history of the rise and progress of the race; how, from the condition of ants, it arrived at the condition of men, and arts were gradually invented. Let a thousand surmises shed some light on this story.

    Henry David Thoreau (2017). “The Most Alive is the Wildest – Thoreau’s Complete Works on Living in Harmony with the Nature: Walden, Walking, Night and Moonlight, The Highland Light, A Winter Walk, The Maine Woods, A Walk to Wachusett, The Landlord, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, Autumnal Tints, Wild Apples…”, p.342, e-artnow
  • But the eyes, though they are no sailors, will never be satisfied with any model, however fashionable, which does not answer all the requisitions of art.

    Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.93, Penguin
  • I would that our farmers when they cut down a forest felt some of that awe which the old Romans did when they came to thin, or letin the light to, a consecrated grove (lucum conlucare), that is, would believe that it is sacred to some god. The Roman made an expiatory offering, and prayed, Whatever god or goddess thou art to whom this grove is sacred, be propitious to me, my family, and children, etc.

    Henry David Thoreau (1906). “Walden: Or, Life in the Woods”
  • Of a life of luxury the fruit is luxury, whether in agriculture, or commerce, or literature, or art.

    Henry David Thoreau (1882). “Walden”, p.25
  • Unless we do more than simply learn the trade of our time, we are but apprentices, and not yet masters of the art of life.

    Henry David Thoreau (2014). “A Week On The Concord And Merrimack Rivers (Annotated Edition)”, p.103, Jazzybee Verlag
  • A written word is the choicest of relics. It is something at once more intimate with us and more universal than any other work of art. It is the work of art nearest to life itself. It may be translated into every language, and not only be read but actually breathed from all human lips; -- not be represented on canvas or in marble only, but be carved out of the breath of life itself.

    Henry David Thoreau (2012). “Walden; Or, Life in the Woods”, p.67, Courier Corporation
  • I must walk toward Oregon, and not toward Europe. And that way the nation is moving, and I may say that mankind progress from east to west. We go eastward to realize history and study the works of art and literature, retracing the steps of the race; we go westward as into the future, with a spirit of enterprise and adventure.

    Henry David Thoreau (2015). “Walking: Top Essays”, p.7, 谷月社
  • But it is fit that the Past should be dark; though the darkness is not so much a quality of the past as of tradition. It is not adistance of time, but a distance of relation, which makes thus dusky its memorials. What is near to the heart of this generation is fair and bright still. Greece lies outspread fair and sunshiny in floods of light, for there is the sun and daylight in her literature and art. Homer does not allow us to forget that the sun shone,--nor Phidias, nor the Parthenon.

  • The animal merely makes a bed, which he warms with his body, in a sheltered place; but man, having discovered fire, boxes up someair in a spacious apartment, and warms that.... Thus he goes a step or two beyond instinct, and saves a little time for the fine arts.

    Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Citizen Thoreau: Walden, Civil Disobedience, Life Without Principle, Slavery in Massachusetts, A Plea for Captain John Brown”, p.152, Graphic Arts Books
  • In the wildest nature, there is not only the material of the most cultivated life, and a sort of anticipation of the last result,but a greater refinement already than is ever attained by man.... Nature is prepared to welcome into her scenery the finest work of human art, for she is herself an art so cunning that the artist never appears in his work.

    Henry David Thoreau (1873). “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers”, p.335
  • It required some rudeness to disturb with our boat the mirror-like surface of the water, in which every twig and blade of grass was so faithfully reflected; too faithfully indeed for art to imitate, for only Nature may exaggerate herself.

    Henry David Thoreau (2016). “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers”, p.34, Xist Publishing
  • See yonder thin column of smoke curling up through the woods from some invisible farmhouse, the standard raised over some rural homestead.... It is a hieroglyphic of man's life, and suggests more intimate and important things than the boiling of a pot. Where its fine column rises above the forest, like an ensign, some human life has planted itself,--and such is the beginning of Rome, the establishment of the arts, and the foundation of empires, whether on the prairies of America or the steppes of Asia.

  • Such is the never-failing beauty and accuracy of language, the most perfect art in the world; the chisel of a thousand years retouches it.

    Henry David Thoreau (2016). “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers”, p.29, Xist Publishing
  • Art can never match the luxury and superfluity of Nature. In the former all is seen; it cannot afford concealed wealth, and is niggardly in comparison; but Nature, even when she is scant and thin outwardly, satisfies us still by the assurance of a certain generosity at the roots.

    Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.124, Penguin
  • The sea, vast and wild as it is, bears thus the waste and wrecks of human art to its remotest shore. There is no telling what it may not vomit up.

    Henry David Thoreau (2008). “Cape Cod: Illustrated Edition of the American Classic”, p.104, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  • The true poem is not that which the public read. There is always a poem not printed on paper,... in the poet's life. It is what hehas become through his work. Not how is the idea expressed in stone, or on canvas or paper, is the question, but how far it has obtained form and expression in the life of the artist. His true work will not stand in any prince's gallery.

    Henry David Thoreau (2017). “HENRY DAVID THOREAU – The Man, The Philosopher & The Trailblazer (Illustrated): Biographies, Memoirs, Autobiographical Books & Personal Letters (Including Walden, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, The Maine Woods, Cape Cod, A Yankee in Canada…)”, p.275, e-artnow
  • We have heard much about the poetry of mathematics, but very little of it has as yet been sung. The ancients had a juster notion of their poetic value than we. The most distinct and beautiful statements of any truth must take at last the mathematical form. We might so simplify the rules of moral philosophy, as well as of arithmetic, that one formula would express them both.

    Henry David Thoreau (1999). “Material Faith: Thoreau on Science”, p.12, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  • 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.

    Henry David Thoreau (2000). “Walden and Other Writings: (A Modern Library E-Book)”, p.387, Modern Library
  • Visit the Navy-Yard, and behold a marine, such a man as an American government can make, or such as it can make a man with its black arts - a mere shadow and reminiscence of humanity, a man laid out alive and standing, and already, as one may say, buried under arms with funeral accompaniments.

    Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Citizen Thoreau: Walden, Civil Disobedience, Life Without Principle, Slavery in Massachusetts, A Plea for Captain John Brown”, p.198, Graphic Arts Books
  • Experience is in the fingers and head. The heart is inexperienced.

    Henry David Thoreau, Odell Shepard (1961). “The Heart of Thoreau's Journals”, p.31, Courier Corporation
  • I have met with but one or two persons in the course of my life who have understood the art of Walking, that is, of taking walks,-who had a genius, so to speak, for sauntering.

    Henry David Thoreau (2015). “Walking: Top Essays”, p.1, 谷月社
  • In respect to religion and the healing art, all nations are still in a state of barbarism. In the most civilized countries the priest is still but a Powwow, and the physician a Great Medicine.

    Henry David Thoreau (2014). “A Week On The Concord And Merrimack Rivers (Annotated Edition)”, p.215, Jazzybee Verlag
  • It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look, which morally we can do. To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.

    Henry David Thoreau (1882). “Walden”, p.142
  • Making a logging-road in the Maine woods is called "swamping" it, and they who do the work are called "swampers." I now perceivedthe fitness of the term. This was the most perfectly swamped of all the roads I ever saw. Nature must have coöperated with art here.

    Henry David Thoreau (2000). “Walden and Other Writings: (A Modern Library E-Book)”, p.586, Modern Library
  • The sugar maple is remarkable for its clean ankle. The groves of these trees looked like vast forest sheds, their branches stopping short at a uniform height, four or five feet from the ground, like eaves, as if they had been trimmed by art, so that you could look under and through the whole grove with its leafy canopy, as under a tent whose curtain is raised.

    Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson (1866). “A Yankee in Canada: With Anti-slavery and Reform Papers”, p.6
  • I have met with but one or two persons in the course of my life who understood the art of Walking, that is, of taking walks - who had the genius, so to speak, for sauntering: which word is beautifully derived "from idle people who roved about the country, in the Middle Ages, and asked for charity, under the pretense of going à la Sainte Terre," to the Holy Land, till the children exclaimed, "There goes a Sainte-Terrer," a Saunterer, a Holy-Lander.

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    Henry David Thoreau quotes about: Abolition Abundance Accidents Accomplishment Achievement Acting Addiction Adventure Affairs Affection Age Aging Aids Alcohol Ambition Anarchism Angels Animal Rights Animals Anxiety Appearance Appreciation Architecture Army Art Atheism Atmosphere Attitude Authority Autumn Awareness Beach Beauty Beer Being Alone Being Successful Being Yourself Belief Best Friends Bible Birds Birth Blessings Boat Bones Books Books And Reading Bravery Brothers Business Canvas Caring Cars Cats Change Chaos Character Charity Chastity Cheers Children Choices Christ Christianity Church Civil Disobedience Coincidence College Commitment Common Sense Communication Community Compensation Compliments Composition Confidence Conformity Confusion Conscience Consciousness Conservation Constitution Consumerism Contemplation Cooking Copper Country Courage Creation Creativity Criticism Critics Culture Curiosity Cursing Darkness Death Deception Democracy Demons Depression Design Desire Destiny Determination Devil Diamonds Difficulty Dignity Disappointment Discipline Diversity Dogma Dogs Doubt Dreams Drinking Duty Dying Earth Eating Ecology Economics Economy Education Effort Empiricism Encouraging Enemies Energy Enlightenment Enthusiasm Environment Eternity Ethics Evidence Evil Evolution Excellence Excuses Exercise Expectations Experience Eyes Facts Of Life Failing Failure Faith Fame Family Farming Fashion Fate Fathers Fear Feelings Fighting Finding Yourself Flight Flowers Flying Focus Food Freedom Freedom And Liberty Friends Friendship Funny Future Gardening Gardens Generosity Genius Get Money Giving Giving Up Glory Goals God Gold Good Deeds Good Morning Goodbye Goodness Gossip Grace Graduation Gratitude Greatness Greece Greed Greek Grief Grieving Growth Guns Habits Happiness Hard Work Harmony Hate Healing Health Heart Heaven Heroism Hills Hinduism History Home Honesty Honor Hope Horses House Human Nature Humanity Humility Hunger Hunting Hypocrisy Idleness Ignorance Imagination Immortality Imperfection Impulse Independence Individuality Injustice Innocence Insanity Inspiration Inspirational Inspiring Integrity Intelligence Jesus Jesus Christ Journalism Journey Joy Judging Justice Kindness Knowledge Labor Language Latin Laughter Lawyers Learning Libertarianism Liberty Libraries Life Listening Literature Live Life Loneliness Losing Loss Love Love And Friendship Luck Lying Making Money Management Manhood Mankind Manners Marines Marriage Mathematics Meaning Of Life Meditation Meetings Memories Mental Health Mercy Metals Mindfulness Miracles Mistakes Moderation Money Monument Moon Morality Morning Mortality Mothers Motivation Motivational Mountain Muse Music My Way Mythology Nature Navy Neighbors Obedience Observation Offense Office Old Age Opinions Opportunity Optimism Overcoming Parents Parties Past Patience Patriotism Patriots Peace Perception Perfection Perseverance Personality Perspective Pets Philanthropy Philosophy Physics Pleasure Poetry Police Politicians Politics Positive Poverty Power Praise Prayer Prejudice Preparation Pride Prisons Privacy Progress Property Prophet Protest Prudence Purity Purpose Quality Rain Rainbows Reading Reading Books Reality Rebellion Recognition Reflection Regret Reincarnation Religion Reputation Respect Responsibility Revelations Revolution Rhetoric Rings Risk Running Sabbath Sacrifice Sad Sadness Sailing Saints Sanity Satire School Science Scripture Self Esteem Self Reliance Self Respect Serenity Setting Goals Seven Shame Silence Silver Simple Life Simplicity Sin Sincerity Singing Skins Slavery Slaves Sleep Sloth Social Anxiety Social Responsibility Society Soldiers Solitude Son Songs Sorrow Soul Speculation Spirituality Sports Spring Strength Struggle Students Study Style Success Suffering Summer Sunrise Sunshine Sympathy Taxes Tea Teachers Teaching Technology Temperance Thanksgiving Time Time Management Today Trade Tradition Tragedy Train Transcendentalism Travel True Friends True Love Trust Truth Tyranny Understanding Universe Values Vegetarian Violence Virtue Vision Volunteer Voting Waiting Walking Wall War Water Weakness Wealth Weed Wilderness Wine Winter Wisdom Wit Work Worship Writing Yoga Youth