IntraText Table of Contents | Words: Alphabetical - Frequency - Inverse - Length - Statistics | Help | IntraText Library |
Henri David Thoreau Life without principle Concordances (Hapax - words occurring once) |
bold = Main text Paragraphgrey = Comment text
1001 20| rights, in their thirst for riches - whole valleys, for thirty 1002 18| God gave the righteous man a certificate entitling 1003 20| regardless of each others' rights, in their thirst for riches - 1004 34| them. Really to see the sun rise or go down every day, so 1005 20| indeed is a fork in the road, though ordinary travellers 1006 29| truth, the lowest primitive rock. Our sills are rotten. What 1007 29| steadiness and solidity that the rocks do. The fault is commonly 1008 41| the wheels of travel to roll over; and if you would know 1009 41| durable pavement, surpassing rolled stones, spruce blocks, and 1010 43| private state - to see, as the Roman senate charged its consuls, " 1011 46| and not the affairs of Rome. A praetor or proconsul 1012 28| continually thrust their own low roof, with its narrow skylight, 1013 17| that gets his living by rooting, stirring up the soil so, 1014 29| primitive rock. Our sills are rotten. What stuff is the man made 1015 23| December; take the Isthmus route in preference to the Boca 1016 52| as politics and the daily routine, are, it is true, vital 1017 8| celebrate the accidents of royalty. He must be bribed with 1018 40| lumber their minds with such rubbish - to permit idle rumors 1019 22| adds, "He is a hopelessly ruined man." But he is a type of 1020 8| correct. I once invented a rule for measuring cord-wood, 1021 4| thoughts in; they are commonly ruled for dollars and cents. An 1022 51| The newspapers are the ruling power. Any other government 1023 40| rubbish - to permit idle rumors and incidents of the most 1024 42| tear it, and to deepen the ruts, which, as in the streets 1025 22| Jackass Flat" - "Sheep's-Head Gully" - "Murderer's Bar," 1026 4| interrupts my dreams. There is no sabbath. It would be glorious to 1027 48| and makes slaves of its sailors for this purpose! I saw, 1028 49| rare fruits called heroes, saints, poets, philosophers, and 1029 48| Leghorn and New York for the sake of a cargo of juniper berries 1030 19| gambler as his fellow in the saloons of San Francisco. What difference 1031 19| fellow in the saloons of San Francisco. What difference 1032 40| through their very sanctum sanctorum for an hour, ay, for many 1033 40| profanely through their very sanctum sanctorum for an hour, ay, 1034 34| fact, would preserve us sane forever. Nations! What are 1035 25| fastidious to the extreme of sanity, disregarding the gibes 1036 8| which I could do with most satisfaction my employers do not want. 1037 14| between two, that the one is satisfied with a level success, that 1038 10| seamen, when I was a boy, sauntering in my native port, and as 1039 51| one would say, is all that saves it; but as I love literature 1040 28| biography of the greatest scamps in history, they might have 1041 17| a moneyed gentleman who scatters a handful of pennies in 1042 9| livelihood merely, but for scientific, or even moral ends. Do 1043 17| in order to see mankind scramble for them. The world's raffle! 1044 48| her bitters! Is not the sea-brine, is not shipwreck, bitter 1045 10| advertisement for able-bodied seamen, when I was a boy, sauntering 1046 26| reason why the former went in search of the latter. There is 1047 4| made a cripple for life, or seared out of his wits by the Indians, 1048 23| Tribune" writes: "In the dry season, when the weather will permit 1049 23| accounts, an act has passed its second reading in the legislature 1050 46| breeding" respects only secondary objects. The finest manners 1051 26| of things. The spirit of sect and bigotry has planted 1052 4| and cents. An Irishman, seeing me making a minute in the 1053 | seems 1054 19| observer who goes to the mines sees and says that gold-digging 1055 29| finely than the rest. We select granite for the underpinning 1056 12| All great enterprises are self-supporting. The poet, for instance, 1057 8| measurer there told me that the sellers did not wish to have their 1058 43| state - to see, as the Roman senate charged its consuls, "ne 1059 48| bitter almonds. America sending to the Old World for her 1060 25| ways of men. Most reverend seniors, the illuminati of the age, 1061 20| reverence. Wherever a man separates from the multitude, and 1062 29| men that I know are not serene, a world in themselves. 1063 7| neighbor, who keeps many servants, and spends much money foolishly, 1064 40| temple, consecrated to the service of the gods? I find it so 1065 12| that I am to some extent serviceable to my contemporaries, are 1066 8| down perpendicularly. Those services which the community will 1067 1| and his clique expected seven eighths of the lecture to 1068 41| streams, and not the town sewers. There is inspiration, that 1069 27| phenomenon. A little thought is sexton to all the world.~ ~ 1070 20| why I might not sink a shaft down to the gold within 1071 40| they caught the broad but shallow stream of sound, which, 1072 12| feeds its boilers with the shavings it makes. You must get your 1073 6| whole day as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making 1074 22| they dig: "Jackass Flat" - "Sheep's-Head Gully" - "Murderer' 1075 21| ages been bringing down the shining particles and forming the 1076 48| not the sea-brine, is not shipwreck, bitter enough to make the 1077 16| are mere makeshifts, and a shirking of the real business of 1078 28| It made me quake in my shoes.~ ~ 1079 14| all be hit by point-blank shots, but the other, however 1080 7| idlers - pausing abreast the shoulders of his oxen, and half turning 1081 23| will be necessary; a pick, shovel, and axe of good material 1082 42| liberty, and make a false show with it, as if we were all 1083 40| passed through our thoughts' shrine! Would it not be an intellectual 1084 25| buttered; it will make you sick, if you do - and the like. 1085 40| brains, passed out the other side. I wondered if, when they 1086 33| Registrar of Deeds, again on the sidewalk. Have you not budged an 1087 41| By all kinds of traps and signboards, threatening the extreme 1088 40| few facts which to me are significant, that I hesitate to burden 1089 51| why not keep its castle in silence, as I do commonly? The poor 1090 29| lowest primitive rock. Our sills are rotten. What stuff is 1091 29| the lessons of honesty and sincerity that the brutes do, or of 1092 20| particles - why I might not sink a shaft down to the gold 1093 26| Kane was a Mason, and that Sir John Franklin was another. 1094 40| I have been compelled to sit spectator and auditor in 1095 20| digging one hundred and sixty feet before they strike 1096 42| culture, no refinement - but skill only to live coarsely and 1097 15| teach us, we are inclined to skip altogether. As for the means 1098 51| merchant's clerk, or the skipper that brought it over, for 1099 28| skylight, between you and the sky, when it is the unobstructed 1100 28| low roof, with its narrow skylight, between you and the sky, 1101 43| tyrant, he is still the slave of an economical and moral 1102 42| peddling-carts be driven, even at the slowest trot or walk, over that 1103 7| beside his team, which was slowly drawing a heavy hewn stone 1104 7| sweat - a reproach to all sluggards and idlers - pausing abreast 1105 23| this line in Italics and small capitals: "If you are doing 1106 46| courtliness, knee-buckles and small-clothes, out of date. It is the 1107 25| a gracious, reminiscent smile, betwixt an aspiration and 1108 32| The sun, the clouds, the snow, the trees say not so much 1109 50| In short, as a snow-drift is formed where there is 1110 34| world for you; but if you soar above or dive below that 1111 29| do, or of steadiness and solidity that the rocks do. The fault 1112 21| gold, into the unexplored solitudes around us, there is no danger 1113 47| heaven-born Numas, Lycurguses, and Solons, in the history of the world, 1114 | somewhere 1115 47| submit the question to any son of God - and has He no children 1116 25| his bread. If within the sophisticated man there is not an unsophisticated 1117 52| you can imagine by what sort of eloquence. Thus our life 1118 44| fools and cattle of all sorts upon ourselves. We quarter 1119 44| gross bodies on our poor souls, till the former eat up 1120 42| over that bride of glorious span by which we trust to pass 1121 51| devote some of their columns specially to politics or government 1122 40| have been compelled to sit spectator and auditor in a court-room 1123 6| spends his whole day as a speculator, shearing off those woods 1124 30| dancing. Men were making speeches to him all over the country, 1125 22| nugget.' At last he rode full speed against a tree, and nearly 1126 46| that in this sense the most splendid court in Christendom is 1127 52| opposite halves - sometimes split into quarters, it may be, 1128 33| atmosphere, insignificant as the sporules of fungi, and impinge on 1129 50| of truth, an institution springs up. But the truth blows 1130 41| surpassing rolled stones, spruce blocks, and asphaltum, you 1131 21| confined to a claim twelve feet square, as at Ballarat, but may 1132 10| without employment at this stage of the voyage. To tell the 1133 41| There is the profane and stale revelation of the bar-room 1134 33| to our genius. It is the stalest repetition. You are often 1135 40| court into our thoughts, to stalk profanely through their 1136 12| generally, tried by this standard, is a failure, and bankruptcy 1137 45| do not find at home our standards; because we do not worship 1138 20| hundreds are drowned in them - standing in water, and covered with 1139 13| give up all, and think to start again. Thus men will lie 1140 17| enterprise! I know of no more startling development of the immorality 1141 25| the like. A man had better starve at once than lose his innocence 1142 48| those who style themselves statesmen and philosophers who are 1143 47| I derive my facts from statistical tables which the States 1144 29| that the brutes do, or of steadiness and solidity that the rocks 1145 40| who were not compelled, stealing in from time to time, and 1146 12| body by his poetry, as a steam planing-mill feeds its boilers 1147 21| danger that any will dog his steps, and endeavor to supplant 1148 13| not to be born, but to be still-born, rather. To be supported 1149 30| serpent. For all fruit of that stir we have the Kossuth hat.~ ~ 1150 30| of the multitude. No man stood on truth. They were merely 1151 34| your being in that thin stratum in which the events that 1152 42| the ruts, which, as in the streets of Pompeii, evince how much 1153 33| tempted to ask why such stress is laid on a particular 1154 48| and bitter almonds were strewn along the shore. It seemed 1155 20| and sixty feet before they strike the vein, or then missing 1156 34| they swarm. The historian strives in vain to make them memorable. 1157 1| that I will give them a strong dose of myself. They have 1158 7| lying beside a whimsical structure intended to adorn this Lord 1159 29| in forms, and flatter and study effect only more finely 1160 29| Our sills are rotten. What stuff is the man made of who is 1161 48| and there are those who style themselves statesmen and 1162 46| not say? Their natures are subdued to what they work in. Their " 1163 41| our minds which have been subjected to this treatment so long.~ ~ 1164 47| slaves? Suppose you were to submit the question to any son 1165 17| them. The world's raffle! A subsistence in the domains of Nature 1166 44| eat up all the latter's substance.~ ~ 1167 29| thought with the purest and subtilest truth? I often accuse my 1168 16| cunning and intellectually subtle? Does Wisdom work in a tread-mill? 1169 16| or does she teach how to succeed by her example? Is there 1170 14| is satisfied with a level success, that his marks can all 1171 16| in a better way or more successfully than his contemporaries - 1172 16| contemporaries - or did he succumb to the difficulties of life 1173 18| not know that mankind was suffering for want of old. I have 1174 46| praetor or proconsul would suffice to settle the questions 1175 49| and illumination more than sugar-plums, then the great resources 1176 26| But it was a more cruel suggestion that possibly that was the 1177 40| an intellectual and moral suicide? When I have been compelled 1178 20| what though it were a sulky-gully? At any rate, I might pursue 1179 13| go into the almshouse. On Sundays the poor debtor goes to 1180 7| For instance: just after sunrise, one summer morning, I noticed 1181 1| toward his extremities and superficies. There was, in this sense, 1182 21| his steps, and endeavor to supplant him. He may claim and undermine 1183 12| increased, the labor required to supply them would become a drudgery. 1184 13| still-born, rather. To be supported by the charity of friends, 1185 12| most appear to do, I am sure that for me there would 1186 41| the most durable pavement, surpassing rolled stones, spruce blocks, 1187 7| stone swung under the axle, surrounded by an atmosphere of industry - 1188 1| their land - since I am a surveyor - or, at most, what trivial 1189 28| and the audience never suspected what I was about. The lecture 1190 12| poet, for instance, must sustain his body by his poetry, 1191 34| Chinamen! Like insects, they swarm. The historian strives in 1192 7| his brow commenced to sweat - a reproach to all sluggards 1193 7| drawing a heavy hewn stone swung under the axle, surrounded 1194 13| breathe - by whatever fine synonyms you describe these relations, 1195 18| one of the most extensive systems of counterfeiting that the 1196 47| my facts from statistical tables which the States themselves 1197 13| will lie on their backs, talking about the fall of man, and 1198 34| Nations! What are nations? Tartars, and Huns, and Chinamen! 1199 7| long - that makes his bread taste sweet, and keeps society 1200 17| precepts in all the Bibles taught men only this? and is the 1201 44| perchance be really free. We tax ourselves unjustly. There 1202 44| is not represented. It is taxation without representation. 1203 49| resources of a world are taxed and drawn out, and the result, 1204 49| of Nature, and at last taxes her beyond her resources; 1205 31| newspaper, or been out to tea, and we have not. In proportion 1206 40| street and the gossip of the tea-table chiefly are discussed? Or 1207 25| preachers there are so few moral teachers. The prophets are employed 1208 15| lesson of value which money teaches, which the Author of the 1209 7| neighbors walking beside his team, which was slowly drawing 1210 7| forthwith departed from the teamster's labor, in my eyes. In 1211 42| the mind helps to wear and tear it, and to deepen the ruts, 1212 39| dogs, Esquimaux-fashion, tearing over hill and dale, and 1213 40| heaven itself - an hypaethral temple, consecrated to the service 1214 33| repetition. You are often tempted to ask why such stress is 1215 20| up with foul pits, from ten to one hundred feet deep, 1216 23| not cumber yourself with a tent; but a good pair of blankets 1217 24| why go to California for a text? She is the child of New 1218 33| impinge on some neglected thallus, or surface of our minds, 1219 1| eighths of the lecture to be theirs, and only one eighth mine; 1220 1| the lecturer had chosen a theme too foreign to himself, 1221 | therefore 1222 34| have your being in that thin stratum in which the events 1223 52| is called. It is as if a thinker submitted himself to be 1224 34| make the news transpire - thinner than the paper on which 1225 20| others' rights, in their thirst for riches - whole valleys, 1226 20| riches - whole valleys, for thirty miles, suddenly honeycombed 1227 41| remember! If I am to be a thoroughfare, I prefer that it be of 1228 2| not talk about people a thousand miles off, but come as near 1229 41| of traps and signboards, threatening the extreme penalty of the 1230 5| and he wishes me to spend three weeks digging there with 1231 46| than the meat. The man who thrusts his manners upon me does 1232 40| equally criminal, and a thunderbolt might be expected to descend 1233 19| trade there, that is, buys a ticket in what commonly proves 1234 44| bodies on our poor souls, till the former eat up all the 1235 7| intended to adorn this Lord Timothy Dexter's premises, and the 1236 41| all our thoughts shall be tinged with triviality. Our very 1237 40| in from time to time, and tiptoeing about with washed hands 1238 40| sound, which, after a few titillating gyrations in their coggy 1239 16| The title wise is, for the most part, 1240 21| whole wide world in his tom.~ ~ 1241 21| mind his cradles or his toms. He is not confined to a 1242 1| were acquainted with the tool. Commonly, if men want anything 1243 23| preference to the Boca del Toro one; bring no useless baggage, 1244 4| calculating my wages. If a man was tossed out of a window when an 1245 | toward 1246 46| authority to consult about Transalpine interests only, and not 1247 19| Devil work hard. The way of transgressors may be hard in many respects. 1248 12| are still very slight and transient. Those slight labors which 1249 34| events that make the news transpire - thinner than the paper 1250 41| By all kinds of traps and signboards, threatening 1251 2| have not been much of a traveller, I will not talk about people 1252 20| the road, though ordinary travellers may see only a gap in the 1253 16| subtle? Does Wisdom work in a tread-mill? or does she teach how to 1254 51| him, for this is the only treason in these days.~ ~ 1255 42| fane of the mind. We should treat our minds, that is, ourselves, 1256 41| have been subjected to this treatment so long.~ ~ 1257 32| the clouds, the snow, the trees say not so much to me. You 1258 41| divine law, exclude such trespassers from the only ground which 1259 23| a correspondent of the "Tribune" writes: "In the dry season, 1260 41| thoughts shall be tinged with triviality. Our very intellect shall 1261 44| representation. We quarter troops, we quarter fools and cattle 1262 42| driven, even at the slowest trot or walk, over that bride 1263 11| may raise money enough to tunnel a mountain, but you cannot 1264 20| solitary path across lots will turn out the higher way of the 1265 20| then missing it by a foot - turned into demons, and regardless 1266 7| shoulders of his oxen, and half turning round with a flourish of 1267 21| not confined to a claim twelve feet square, as at Ballarat, 1268 22| great nugget which weighed twenty-eight pounds, at the Bendigo diggings 1269 33| you have had - that, after twenty-five years, you should meet Hobbins, 1270 22| ruined man." But he is a type of the class. They are all 1271 20| probe for their fortunes - uncertain where they shall break ground - 1272 21| both the cultivated and the uncultivated portions, his whole life 1273 21| supplant him. He may claim and undermine the whole valley even, both 1274 25| not worth your while to undertake to reform the world in this 1275 5| praiseworthy in this fellow's undertaking any more than in many an 1276 10| did, what do you think the underwriters would say? No, no! I am 1277 15| respect, or at least has undone what she has done. Cold 1278 21| this true gold, into the unexplored solitudes around us, there 1279 15| which the Author of the Universe has taken so much pains 1280 44| really free. We tax ourselves unjustly. There is a part of us which 1281 | unless 1282 28| the sky, when it is the unobstructed heavens you would view. 1283 18| food and raiment, but the unrighteous man found a facsimile of 1284 20| accidentally, of my own unsatisfactory life, doing as others do; 1285 25| sophisticated man there is not an unsophisticated one, then he is but one 1286 14| the other, however low and unsuccessful his life may be, constantly 1287 1| happens, it is such a rare use he would make of me, as 1288 | used 1289 30| merely banded together, as usual one leaning on another, 1290 12| Perhaps I am more than usually jealous with respect to 1291 51| private man's door, and utter their complaints at his 1292 34| The historian strives in vain to make them memorable. 1293 11| business. An efficient and valuable man does what he can, whether 1294 40| heads were crowded. Like the vanes of windmills, they caught 1295 40| ears suddenly expanded into vast hoppers for sound, between 1296 52| are infrahuman, a kind of vegetation. I sometimes awake to a 1297 20| feet before they strike the vein, or then missing it by a 1298 48| I saw, the other day, a vessel which had been wrecked, 1299 51| of the eruption of some Vesuvius, or the overflowing of some 1300 46| out of date. It is the vice, but not the excellence 1301 28| unobstructed heavens you would view. Get out of the way with 1302 28| particular, not universal, way of viewing things. They will continually 1303 20| others do; and with that vision of the diggings still before 1304 52| routine, are, it is true, vital functions of human society, 1305 51| with me, the reader, to vote for it - more importunate 1306 28| they tell me that they have voted to exclude the subject of 1307 10| employment at this stage of the voyage. To tell the truth, I saw 1308 52| of, certainly not in our waking hours. Why should we not 1309 28| to or far from it? I have walked into such an arena and done 1310 7| noticed one of my neighbors walking beside his team, which was 1311 7| in throwing stones over a wall, and then in throwing them 1312 49| observed that there was wanting there "an industrious and 1313 15| have adopted and advise to ward them off.~ ~ 1314 42| the remedy will be by wariness and devotion to reconsecrate 1315 45| of truth; because we are warped and narrowed by an exclusive 1316 40| and tiptoeing about with washed hands and faces, it has 1317 20| myself why I might not be washing some gold daily, though 1318 42| through the mind helps to wear and tear it, and to deepen 1319 23| the dry season, when the weather will permit of the country 1320 32| to read one newspaper a week. I have tried it recently, 1321 5| wishes me to spend three weeks digging there with him. 1322 22| found the great nugget which weighed twenty-eight pounds, at 1323 41| broken into fragments for the wheels of travel to roll over; 1324 | Whereas 1325 | Wherever 1326 7| the morning lying beside a whimsical structure intended to adorn 1327 7| flourish of his merciful whip, while they gained their 1328 48| A commerce that whitens every sea in quest of nuts 1329 21| anywhere, and wash the whole wide world in his tom.~ ~ 1330 40| astonished to observe how willing men are to lumber their 1331 19| dirt or shake dice? If you win, society is the loser. The 1332 40| crowded. Like the vanes of windmills, they caught the broad but 1333 28| your cobwebs; wash your windows, I say! In some lyceums 1334 8| be bribed with a pipe of wine; and perhaps another poet 1335 8| reward a genius any more wisely. Even the poet laureate 1336 46| cabinet of curiosities, when I wished to see himself. It was not 1337 5| out of mischief, and he wishes me to spend three weeks 1338 18| but not so malleable as wit. A grain of gold gild a 1339 40| that the auditors and the witnesses, the jury and the counsel, 1340 4| life, or seared out of his wits by the Indians, it is regretted 1341 40| passed out the other side. I wondered if, when they got home, 1342 15| the means of living, it is wonderful how indifferent men of all 1343 51| over, for it cannot speak a word of English itself, I shall 1344 19| enough to tell me that you worked hard to get your gold. So 1345 9| not feel that they were working for low ends, as for a livelihood 1346 42| Devil? - to acquire a little worldly wealth, or fame, or liberty, 1347 17| command the wealth of all the worlds by lifting my finger, I 1348 45| standards; because we do not worship truth, but the reflection 1349 7| the sun was made to light worthier toil than this. I may add 1350 7| wages. But many are no more worthily employed now. For instance: 1351 48| a vessel which had been wrecked, and many lives lost, and 1352 22| that he was 'the bloody wretch that had found the nugget.' 1353 51| newspaper but I find that some wretched government or other, hard 1354 4| easily buy a blank-book to write thoughts in; they are commonly 1355 8| you would get money as a writer or lecturer, you must be 1356 23| correspondent of the "Tribune" writes: "In the dry season, when 1357 7| at evening I passed the yard of another neighbor, who 1358 33| that, after twenty-five years, you should meet Hobbins, 1359 | Yes 1360 5| to certain labors which yield more real profit, though 1361 48| between Leghorn and New York for the sake of a cargo 1362 | yourself