Henry David Thoreau: Zitate auf Englisch (seite 4)
Henry David Thoreau war US-amerikanischer Schriftsteller und Philosoph (1817-1862). Zitate auf Englisch.A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext03/7cncd10.txt (1849), Wednesday
“Dreams are the touchstones of our characters.”
A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext03/7cncd10.txt (1849), Wednesday
Walden (1854)
Kontext: A living dog is better than a dead lion. Shall a man go and hang himself because he belongs to the race of pygmies, and not be the biggest pygmy that he can? Let every one mind his own business, and endeavor to be what he was made. Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed, and in such desperate enterprises? If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.<!--pp.366-367
Variante: I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.
Quelle: Walden: Or, Life in the Woods
Life Without Principle (1863)
Kontext: The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked me what I thought, and attended to my answer. I am surprised, as well as delighted, when this happens, it is such a rare use he would make of me, as if he were acquainted with the tool.
“Any fool can make a rule
And every fool will mind it.”
February 3, 1860
Journals (1838-1859)
Quelle: http://thoreau.library.ucsb.edu/writings_journals_pdfs/J15f4-f6.pdf#page=289
Quelle: Journal #14
“A grain of gold will gild a great surface, but not so much as a grain of wisdom.”
Life Without Principle (1863)
Kontext: I did not know that mankind were suffering for want of gold. I have seen a little of it. I know that it is very malleable, but not so malleable as wit. A grain of gold will gild a great surface, but not so much as a grain of wisdom.