Quotation by Henry David Thoreau

More Quotes From

Additional Sources

"After the Death of John Brown" (1860) Houghton Mifflin (1906)"A Plea for Captain John Brown" (1859) Houghton Mifflin (1906)"Appendix" (1864) in The Maine Woods (1864) Houghton Mifflin (1906)"Autumnal Tints" (1862) Houghton Mifflin (1906)"A Walk to Wachusett" (1843) Houghton Mifflin (1906)

Related Subjects

children (24) knowledge (14) learning (11) teachers and teaching (10) reading (9) life (8) thoughtful (8) thinking (8) passion (7) self (7)

I love man-kind, but I hate the institutions of the dead unkind. Men execute nothing so faithfully as the wills of the dead, to the last codicil and letter. They rule this world, and the living are but their executors. Such foundation too have our lectures and our sermons, commonly.

Henry David Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862), U.S. philosopher, author, naturalist. A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (1849), in The Writings of Henry David Thoreau, vol. 1, p. 135, Houghton Mifflin (1906).

Cite this source Embed this quotation

Surprise me with a

The Columbia World of Quotations © 1996, Columbia University Press.
Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. Except as otherwise permitted by written agreement, the following are prohibited: copying substantial portions or the entirety of the work in machine readable form, making multiple printouts thereof, and other uses of the work inconsistent with U.S. and applicable foreign copyright and related laws.

Partners:Word Bloglines Citysearch The Daily Beast Ask Answers Ask Kids Life123 Reference Sendori