The millions are awake enough for physical labor; but only … - Henry David Thoreau

" "
The millions are awake enough for physical labor; but only one in a million is awake enough for effective intellectual exertion, only one in a hundred millions to a poetic or divine life. To be awake is to be alive.

Henry David Thoreau

This quote has a book source. Sign up to see titles and page references

English

Collect this quote

About Henry David Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau (12 July 1817 – 6 May 1862) was an American essayist, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, and historian. A leading transcendentalist, Thoreau is best known for his book Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay Resistance to Civil Government (also known as Civil Disobedience), an argument for disobedience to an unjust state.

Biography information from Wikiquote

Also Known As

Birth Name: David Henry Thoreau

Alternative Names: Thoreau • Henry D. Thoreau • Henry Thoreau

All quotes from Henry David Thoreau Similar Quotes by other Originators

Originators like Henry David Thoreau:

Ralph Waldo Emerson Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Michel de Montaigne Samuel Johnson Robert Louis Stevenson

Additional quotes by Henry David Thoreau

The civilized man is a more experienced and wiser savage.

A single gentle rain makes the grass many shades greener. So our prospects brighten on the influx of better thoughts.

Nations are possessed with an insane ambition to perpetuate the memory of themselves by the amount of hammered stone they leave. What if equal pains were taken to smooth and polish their manners? One piece of good sense would be more memorable than a monument as high as the moon.

The millions are awake enough for physical labor; but only one in a million is awake enough for effective intellectual exertion, only one in a hundre… - Henry David Thoreau

About Henry David Thoreau

Also Known As

Enhance Your Quote Experience

Additional quotes by Henry David Thoreau

Enhance Your Quote Experience