Henry David Thoreau Genius Quotations

The news we hear, for the most part, is not news to our genius. It is the stalest repetition.

This is one of those instances in which the individual genius is found to consent, as indeed it always does, at last, with the universal.

Genius is not a retainer to any emperor.

I confess that I have hitherto indulged very little in philanthropic enterprises.... While my townsmen and women are devoted in somany ways to the good of their fellows, I trust that one at least may be spared to other and less humane pursuits. You must have a genius for charity as well as for anything else. As for Doing-good, that is one of the professions which are full.

We admire Chaucer for his sturdy English wit.... But though it is full of good sense and humanity, it is not transcendent poetry.For picturesque description of persons it is, perhaps, without a parallel in English poetry; yet it is essentially humorous, as the loftiest genius never is.

I have met with but one or two persons in the course of my life who have understood the art of Walking, that is, of taking walks,-who had a genius, so to speak, for sauntering.

Genius is a light which makes the darkness visible, like the lightning's flash, which perchance shatters the temple of knowledge itself.

No man ever followed his genius til it misled him.

Follow your genius closely enough, and it will not fail to show you a fresh prospect every hour.

Nature is full of genius, full of divinity.

The very thrills of genius are disorganizing. The body is never quite acclimated to its atmosphere, but how often, succumbs and goes into a decline.

You must have a genius for charity as well as for anything else.

But the divinest poem, or the life of a great man, is the severest satire.... The greater the genius, the keener the edge of the satire.