Henry David Thoreau Quotes about Imagination

Some simple dishes recommend themselves to our imaginations as well as palates.

Some simple dishes recommend themselves to our imaginations as well as palates.

Simple, Imagination, Simplicity

Henry David Thoreau (2013). “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers”, p.179, Courier Corporation

The imagination never forgets; it is a re-membering. It is not foundationless, but most reasonable, and it alone uses all the knowledge of the intellect.

Henry David Thoreau

Imagination, Use, Never Forget

Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Familiar Letters (Annotated Edition)”, p.159, Jazzybee Verlag

We can conceive of nothing more fair than something which we have experienced.

Henry David Thoreau

Imagination, Experience, Fairs

Henry David Thoreau (2016). “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers”, p.269, Xist Publishing

Friendship is never established as an understood relation. It is a miracle which requires constant proofs. It is an exercise of the purest imagination and of the rarest faith!

Henry David Thoreau

Friendship, Exercise, Imagination

Henry David Thoreau (2006). “Thoreau and the Art of Life: Precepts and Principles”, p.9, Heron Dance Press

The gross feeder is a man in the larva state; and there are whole nations in that condition, nations without fancy or imagination,whose vast abdomens betray them.

Henry David Thoreau

Men, Imagination, Fancy

Henry David Thoreau (2015). “Walden”, p.182, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

It is usually the imagination that is wounded first, rather than the heart; it being much more sensitive.

Henry David Thoreau

Anger, Heart, Imagination

Henry David Thoreau (2006). “Thoreau and the Art of Life: Precepts and Principles”, p.9, Heron Dance Press

Generally speaking, a howling wilderness does not howl: it is the imagination of the traveler that does the howling.

Henry David Thoreau

Nature, Imagination, Doe

Henry David Thoreau (2014). “The Maine Woods”, p.93, Graphic Arts Books

However intense my experience, I am conscious of the presence and criticism of a part of me, which, as it were, is not a part of me, but a spectator, sharing no experience, but taking note of it, and that is no more I than it is you. When the lay, it may be the tragedy, of life is over, the spectator goes his way. It was a kind of fiction, a work of the imagination only, so far as he was concerned.

Henry David Thoreau

Life, Imagination, Criticism

In love and friendship the imagination is as much exercised as the heart; and if either is outraged the other will be estranged. It is commonly the imagination which is wounded first, rather than the heart,--it is so much the more sensitive.

Henry David Thoreau

Friendship, Heart, Imagination

Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.1138, Delphi Classics

The universe constantly and obediently answers to our conceptions; whether we travel fast or slow, the track is laid for us. Let us spend our lives in conceiving then. The poet or the artist never yet had so fair and noble a design but some of his posterity at least could accomplish it.

Henry David Thoreau

Artist, Imagination, Track

Henry David Thoreau (1882). “Walden”, p.153

The repugnance to animal food is not the effect of experience, but is an instinct. It appeared more beautiful to live low and farehard in many respects; and though I never did so, I went far enough to please my imagination.

Henry David Thoreau

Beautiful, Animal, Imagination

Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Citizen Thoreau: Walden, Civil Disobedience, Life Without Principle, Slavery in Massachusetts, A Plea for Captain John Brown”, p.131, Graphic Arts Books

We should endeavor practically in our lives to correct all the defects which our imagination detects.

Henry David Thoreau

Imagination, Reform, Should

Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson (1865). “Letters to Various Persons”, p.49

When one man has reduced a fact of the imagination to be a fact to his understanding, I foresee that all men will at length establish their lives on that basis.

Henry David Thoreau

Men, Imagination, Understanding

Henry David Thoreau (2015). “Walden”, p.20, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

An island always pleases my imagination, even the smallest, as a small continent and integral portion of the globe. I have a fancyfor building my hut on one. Even a bare, grassy isle, which I can see entirely over at a glance, has some undefined and mysterious charm for me.

Henry David Thoreau

Islands, Imagination, Mysterious

Henry David Thoreau (2014). “The Illustrated "A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers"”, p.243, Princeton University Press

The most stupendous scenery ceases to be sublime when it becomes distinct, or in other words limited, and the imagination is no longer encouraged to exaggerate it. The actual height and breadth of a mountain or a waterfall are always ridiculously small; they are the imagined only that content us.

Henry David Thoreau

Imagination, Sublime, Mountain

Henry David Thoreau (2016). “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers”, p.136, Xist Publishing

As we looked up in silence to those distant lights, we were reminded that it was a rare imagination which first taught that the stars are worlds, and had conferred a great benefit on mankind.

Henry David Thoreau

Stars, Light, Imagination

Henry David Thoreau (1873). “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers”, p.412

Comparatively, we can excuse any offense against the heart, but not against the imagination. The imagination knows--nothing escapes its glance from out its eyry--and it controls the breast.

Henry David Thoreau

Heart, Imagination, Excuse

Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Familiar Letters (Annotated Edition)”, p.159, Jazzybee Verlag

Men cannot conceive of a state of things so fair that it cannot be realized.

Henry David Thoreau

Men, Imagination, Optimism

Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.357, Penguin

The imagination, give it the least license, dives deeper and soars higher than Nature goes.

Henry David Thoreau

Art, Giving, Imagination

Henry David Thoreau (2009). “Walden”, p.186, Cosimo, Inc.

When we come down into the distant village, visible from the mountain-top, the nobler inhabitants with whom we peopled it have departed, and left only vermin in its desolate streets. It is the imagination of poets which puts those brave speeches into the mouths of their heroes.

Henry David Thoreau

Truth, Hero, Imagination

Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.282, Delphi Classics