The Marginalian
The Marginalian

Reads tagged with “Henry David Thoreau”

A Winter Walk with Thoreau: The Transcendentalist Way of Finding Inner Warmth in the Cold Season
A Winter Walk with Thoreau: The Transcendentalist Way of Finding Inner Warmth in the Cold Season

“Take long walks in stormy weather or through deep snows in the fields and woods, if you would keep your spirits up. Deal with brute nature. Be cold and hungry and weary.”

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The Death of a Tree: Eulogy for Friend
The Death of a Tree: Eulogy for Friend

“It is worse than boorish, it is criminal, to inflict an unnecessary injury on the tree that feeds or shadows us. Old trees are our parents, and our parents’ parents, perchance.”

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Thoreau on the Difference Between an Artisan, an Artist, and a Genius
Thoreau on the Difference Between an Artisan, an Artist, and a Genius

“The bird of paradise is obliged constantly to fly against the wind.”

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Thoreau on How Silence Ennobles Speech and the Ideal Space for Conversation
Thoreau on How Silence Ennobles Speech and the Ideal Space for Conversation

“There are many fine things which we cannot say if we have to shout.”

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The Diffusion of Useful Ignorance: Thoreau on the Hubris of Our Knowledge and the Transcendent Humility of Not-Knowing
The Diffusion of Useful Ignorance: Thoreau on the Hubris of Our Knowledge and the Transcendent Humility of Not-Knowing

“My desire for knowledge is intermittent, but my desire to bathe my head in atmospheres unknown to my feet is perennial and constant.”

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Thoreau on Writing and the Splendors of Mystery in an Age of Knowledge
Thoreau on Writing and the Splendors of Mystery in an Age of Knowledge

“Do not seek expressions, seek thoughts to be expressed.”

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Thoreau on How to Use Civil Disobedience to Advance Justice
Thoreau on How to Use Civil Disobedience to Advance Justice

“Under a government which imprisons unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.”

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The Art of Not-Having-to-Ask, from Buddhist Monks to Amanda Palmer by Way of Thoreau
The Art of Not-Having-to-Ask, from Buddhist Monks to Amanda Palmer by Way of Thoreau

How to unlearn everything our transactionalist culture has taught us about “the market” and relearn our natural open-handed generosity.

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The Art of Constructive Criticism: Trailblazing Feminist Margaret Fuller Rejects Young Thoreau and Helps Him Improve His Writing
The Art of Constructive Criticism: Trailblazing Feminist Margaret Fuller Rejects Young Thoreau and Helps Him Improve His Writing

“I can have no advice or criticism for a person so sincere; but, if I give my impression of him, I will say, ‘He says too constantly of Nature, she is mine.’ She is not yours till you have been more hers.”

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Thoreau on the Sacredness of Libraries and His Ideal Sanctuary for Books
Thoreau on the Sacredness of Libraries and His Ideal Sanctuary for Books

“Those old books suggested a certain fertility … as if they were making a humus for new literatures to spring in.”

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