It is remarkable how long men will believe in the bottomlessness of a pond without taking the trouble to sound it. - Henry David Thoreau

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Engraved portrait of Henry David Thoreau

It is remarkable how long men will believe in the bottomlessness of a pond without taking the trouble to sound it.

English
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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 · Portrait adapted from Wikimedia Commons, B. D. Maxham (Public domain / CC0)

Also Known As

Birth Name: David Henry Thoreau
Alternative Names: Thoreau Henry D. Thoreau Henry Thoreau

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Additional quotes by Henry David Thoreau

I am alarmed when it happens that I have walked a mile into the woods bodily, without getting there in spirit.

Who cares what a man's style is, so it is intelligible, —as intelligible as his thought. Literally and really, the style is no more than the stylus, the pen he writes with; and it is not worth scraping and polishing, and gilding, unless it will write his thoughts the better for it.

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