Quotes about Inspiration
I have scarcely heard of a truer sacrament, that is, as the dictionary defines it, outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace, than this, and I have no doubt that they were originally inspired directly from Heaven to do thus, though they have no Biblical record of the revelation.
— Henry David Thoreau
Hard and steady and engrossing labor with the hands, especially out of doors, is invaluable to the literary man and serves him directly.
— Henry David Thoreau
I was always conscious of sounds in nature which my ears could never hear,—that I caught but the prelude to a strain. She always retreats as I advance. Away behind and behind is she and her meaning. Will not this faith and expectation make to itself ears at length?
— Henry David Thoreau
There are nowadays professors of philosophy, but not philosophers. Yet it is admirable to profess because it was once admirable to live.
— Henry David Thoreau
I walk out into a nature such as the old prophets and poets, Menu, Moses, Homer, Chaucer, walked in.
— Henry David Thoreau
If a man constantly aspires is he not elevated.
— Henry David Thoreau
My profession is to be always on the alert to find God in nature, to know his lurking-places, to attend all the oratorios, the operas in nature.
— Henry David Thoreau
To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.
— Henry David Thoreau
A good book is the plectrum with which our else silent lyres are struck.
— Henry David Thoreau
I value and trust those w^ho love and praise my aspiration rather than my performance.
— Henry David Thoreau
There was a shepherd that did live, And held his thoughts as high As were the mounts whereon his flocks Did hourly feed him by.
— Henry David Thoreau
Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations. Books, the oldest and the best, stand naturally and rightfully on the shelves of every cottage. They have
— Henry David Thoreau