Truth Thoreau Quotes

Chastity is the flowering of man; and what are called Genius, Heroism, Holiness, and the like, are but various fruits which succeed it — Henry David Thoreau

A wise man has doubts even in his best moments. Real truth is always accompanied by hesitations. If I could not hesitate, I could not believe. — Henry David Thoreau

For if the truth were known, Love cannot speak, But only thinks and does; Though surely out 'twill leak Without the help of Greek, Or any tongue. — Henry David Thoreau

I only desire sincere relations with the worthiest of my acquaintance, that they may give me an opportunity once in a year to speak the truth. — Henry David Thoreau

Where there is a lull of truth, an institution springs up. But the truth blows right on over it, nevertheless, and at length blows it down. — Henry David Thoreau

There are secret articles in our treaties with the gods, of more importance than all the rest, which the historian can never know. — Henry David Thoreau

Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth. — Henry David Thoreau

[on Thoreau:] For not a particle of respect had he to the opinions of any man or body of men, but homage solely to truth itself. — Ralph Waldo Emerson

Let us not underrate the value of a fact; it will one day flower into a truth. — Henry David Thoreau

Poetry implies the whole truth, philosophy expresses only a particle of it. — Henry David Thoreau

The truth is, there is money buried everywhere, and you have only to go to work to find it. — Henry David Thoreau

In all perception of the truth there is a divine ecstasy, an inexpressible delirium of joy, as when a youth embraces his betrothed virgin. — Henry David Thoreau

I'm going to paraphrase Thoreau here ... rather than love, than money, than faith, than fame, than fairness ... give me truth. — Jon Krakauer

Did ever a man try heroism, magnanimity, truth, sincerity, and find that there was no advantage in them? that it was a vain endeavor? — Henry David Thoreau

The lawyer's truth is not Truth, but consistency or a consistent expediency. — Henry David Thoreau

It has always been my understanding that truth and freedom can only exist in wild places. — Daniel J. Rice

As a snow-drift is formed where there is a lull in the wind, so, one would say, where there is a lull of truth, an institution springs up. — Henry David Thoreau

Truth strikes us from behind and in the dark, as well as from before and in broad daylight. — Henry David Thoreau

Where there is a lull in truth an institution springs up. — Henry David Thoreau

What stuff is the man made of who is not coexistent in our thought with the purest and sublimest truth? — Henry David Thoreau

Thoreau was an idiot. — Bill Bryson

There is none who does not lie hourly in the respect he pays to false appearance. — Henry David Thoreau

Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake. — Henry David Thoreau

Fame itself is but an epitaph; as late, as false, as true. — Henry David Thoreau

Your scheme must be the framework of the universe; all other schemes will soon be ruins. — Henry David Thoreau

While my friend was my friend, he flattered me, and I never heard the truth from him. When he became my enemy, he shot it to me on a poisoned arrow. — Henry David Thoreau

The only way to speak the truth is to speak lovingly. — Henry David Thoreau

It is not enough that we are truthful; we must cherish and carry out high purposes to be truthful about. — Henry David Thoreau

The only way to tell the truth is to speak with kindness. Only the words of a loving man can be heard — Henry David Thoreau

All perception of truth is the detection of an analogy. — Henry David Thoreau

It takes two to speak the truth - one to speak and another to hear. — Henry David Thoreau

No face which we can give to a matter will stead us so well at last as the truth. This alone wears well. — Henry David Thoreau

Let us not play at kittly-benders. There is a solid bottom everywhere. — Henry David Thoreau

Truth never turns to rebuke falsehood; her own straightforwardness is the severest correction. — Henry David Thoreau

Men are probably nearer the essential truth in their superstitions than in their science. — Henry David Thoreau

The volatile truth of our words should continually betray the inadequacy of the residual statement. — Henry David Thoreau

A lawyer's truth is not Truth. It is consistency, or consistent expediency — Henry David Thoreau

Here or nowhere is our heaven. — Henry David Thoreau

There are sure to be two prescriptions diametrically opposite. — Henry David Thoreau

Between whom there is hearty truth there is love ... — Henry David Thoreau

He who cannot exaggerate is not qualified to utter truth. — Henry David Thoreau

A true account of the actual is the rarest poetry, for common sense always takes a hasty and superficial view. — Henry David Thoreau

I am sorry to think that you do not get a man's most effective criticism until you provoke him. Severe truth is expressed with some bitterness. — Henry David Thoreau

If we dealt only with the false and dishonest, we should at last forget how to speak truth. — Henry David Thoreau

If all were as it seems, and men made the elements their servants for noble ends! — Henry David Thoreau

The rarest quality in an epitaph is truth. — Henry David Thoreau

The eye which can appreciate the naked and absolute beauty of a scientific truth is far more rare than that which is attracted by a moral one. — Henry David Thoreau

Only lovers know the value and magnanimity of truth. — Henry David Thoreau

Those who have been bred in the school of politics fail now and always to face the facts. — Henry David Thoreau

Truth is always paradoxical. — Henry David Thoreau

All expression of truth does at length take this deep ethical form. — Henry David Thoreau

Truth is always in harmony with herself, and is not concerned chiefly to reveal the justice that may consist with wrong-doing. — Henry David Thoreau

Exaggerated history is poetry, and truth referred to a new standard. — Henry David Thoreau

Say what you have to say, not what you ought. Any truth is better than make-believe. — Henry David Thoreau

Expect no trivial truth from me, unless I am on the witness- stand. I will come as near to lying as you can drive a coach and four. — Henry David Thoreau