# henry david thoreau **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 13, 2003, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/henry-david-thoreau/161003 "2003-03-13T02:05:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bindrah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@Bindrah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bindrah)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2003, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/henry-david-thoreau/161003/1 "2003-03-13T02:05:32Z")
anyone else read walden and civil disobedience? what a nifty thinker eh? do you have any favorite quotes from walden? check this one out… “society is commonly too cheap. we meet at very short intervals, not having had time to acquire any new value for each other. we meet at meals three times a day, and give each other a new taste of that old musty cheese that we are.” sheesh. it goes on but that is so true in most cases. any comments? ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Rieux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2003, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/henry-david-thoreau/161003/2 "2003-03-13T02:13:16Z")
A friend mentioned to Thoreau thet the state legislature was starting their new session. Thoreau remarked, “I must go to town and buy a new padlock for my door.” ---
**Author:** ![Bindrah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@Bindrah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bindrah)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2003, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/henry-david-thoreau/161003/3 "2003-03-13T03:25:18Z")
that is rich. are the great thinkers slowly going the way of the buffalo? ---
**Author:** ![jackelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2003, 10:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/henry-david-thoreau/161003/4 "2003-03-13T10:21:31Z")
“My head is hands and feet.” Page 136 or so. ---
**Author:** ![brianmelendez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/65b543/32.png) [@brianmelendez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brianmelendez)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2003, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/henry-david-thoreau/161003/5 "2003-03-13T13:13:52Z")
Not from _Walden_, but from _Civil Disobedience_: > [@](#): > > The authority of government, even such as I am willing to submit to—for I will cheerfully obey those who know and can do better than I, and in many things even those who neither know nor can do so well—is still an impure one: to be strictly just, it must have the sanction and consent of the governed. It can have no pure right over my person and property but what I concede to it. . . . There will never be a really free and enlightened State until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power and authority are derived, and treats him accordingly. > [@](#): > > Unjust laws exist: shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once? Men generally, under such a government as this, think that they ought to wait until they have persuaded the majority to alter them. They think that, if they should resist, the remedy would be worse than the evil. But it is the fault of the government itself that the remedy is worse than the evil. It makes it worse. Why is it not more apt to anticipate and provide for reform? Why does it not cherish its wise minority? Why does it cry and resist before it is hurt? Why does it not encourage its citizens to be on the alert to point out its faults, and do better than it would have them? Why does it always crucify Christ, and excommunicate Copernicus and Luther, and pronounce Washington and Franklin rebels? ---
**Author:** ![Humble\_Servant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/47e85d/32.png) [@Humble\_Servant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Humble_Servant)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2003, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/henry-david-thoreau/161003/6 "2003-03-13T15:37:11Z")
Here’s the bit from Walden I have under the glass on my desk: > [@](#): > > Time is the stream I go a-fishing in. I drink at it; but while I drink I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. Its thin current slides away, but eternity remains. I would drink deeper; fish in the sky, whose bottom is pebbley with stars. [There’s also a Thoreau quotation site I have bookmarked.](http://www.psymon.com/walden/quotes.html) ---
**Author:** ![Bindrah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@Bindrah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bindrah)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2003, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/henry-david-thoreau/161003/7 "2003-03-14T03:14:37Z")
nice quotes. i truly respect this man. i am in awe at his understanding of life. maybe we should get together and do fly bys on gang infested neighborhoods, get them to read someo f these great works and maybe, just maybe they could see what they are missing in life… ---
**Author:** ![Giselle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e495f1/32.png) [@Giselle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giselle)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2003, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/henry-david-thoreau/161003/8 "2003-03-14T04:12:25Z")
I’ve had to read “Civil Disobedience” in two different English classes in high school now and I think it’s absolutely brilliant. I’ve always really liked the part that says something to the effect of, “In an unjust society, the just place for an honest man is in a jail.” Can anyone get me an exact quote on this? Please? ---
**Author:** ![HoldenCaulfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/22d042/32.png) [@HoldenCaulfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoldenCaulfield)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2003, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/henry-david-thoreau/161003/9 "2003-03-14T05:43:59Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Giselle \* > \*\*I’ve always really liked the part that says something to the effect of, “In an unjust society, the just place for an honest man is in a jail.” Can anyone get me an exact quote on this? Please? \*\* When we read it in high school, I remember thinking it was funny that he had only spent one night in prison or something like that. Not only was he an expert on on the trials and tribulations of prison life, but he was the perfect example of an honest man in an unjust society. ---
**Author:** ![fish\_in\_the\_sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7ba0ec/32.png) [@fish\_in\_the\_sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fish_in_the_sky)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2003, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/henry-david-thoreau/161003/10 "2003-03-14T07:53:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Humble Servant \* > Here’s the bit from Walden I have under the glass on my desk: > > ## quote: > > ## Time is the stream I go a-fishing in. I drink at it; but while I drink I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. Its thin current slides away, but eternity remains. I would drink deeper; fish in the sky, whose bottom is pebbley with stars. ::shriek:: That’s where I got my user name from. I adore my Henry. I don’t know that I can pick just one quote, so here are a few favorites: from Walden, at the end of The Ponds chapter: “Nature has no human inhabitant who appreciates her. The birds with their plumage and their notes are in harmony with the flowers, but what youth or maiden conspires with the wild luxuirant beauty of Nature? She flourishes most alone, far from the towns where they reside. Talk of heaven! ye disgrace earth.” from Walden, beginning of Solitude: “This is a delicious evening, when the whole body is one sense and imbibes delight through every pore.” from The Maine Woods, near the end of Ktaadn: “I stand in awe of my body, this matter to which I am bound has become so strange to me. I fear not spirits, ghosts, of which I am one, – that my body might, – but I fear bodies, I tremble to meet them. What is this Titan that has possession of me? Talk of mysteries! Think of our life in nature, – daily to be shown matter, to come in contact with it, – rocks, trees, wind on our cheeks! the _solid_ earth! the _actual_ world! the _common sense! Contact! Contact! Who_ are we? _where_ are we?” ::swoon:: ---
**Author:** ![pepperlandgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2003, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/henry-david-thoreau/161003/11 "2003-03-14T07:56:34Z")
Ahhhhh, good old David Thoreau, both the bane and the joy of my existance in American Lit I. There are too many great quotes to pick a favorite. ---
**Author:** ![Humble\_Servant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/47e85d/32.png) [@Humble\_Servant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Humble_Servant)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2003, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/henry-david-thoreau/161003/12 "2003-03-14T15:37:29Z")
Why, hello **fish in the sky**. 🙂 Can’t believe I never noticed your user name before. Very nice.