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Henry David Thoreau approached Time from first principles, cutting through assumptions to reveal fundamental truths. This archive captures that thinking, giving you access to frameworks you can build on. Every quote is sourced and contextualized, allowing you to understand their reasoning. Use this when you need to think clearly about Time without inheriting broken mental models.
"Let a man take time enough for the most trivial deed, though it be but the paring of his nails. The buds swell imperceptibly, without hurry or confusion; as if the short spring days were an eternity. Pearls of Thought (1881) p. 175"
"I will not talk about people a thousand miles off, but come as near home as I can. As the time is short, I will leave out all the flattery, and retain all the criticism. Let us consider the way in which we spend our lives. p. 484"
Website: Wikiquote - Henry David Thoreau (Life Without Principle (1863))
"And the cost of a thing it will be remembered as the amount of life it requires to be exchanged for it. After December 6, 1845"
"The present hour is always wealthiest when it is poorer than the future ones, as that is the pleasantest site which affords the pleasantest prospect. Pearls of Thought (1881) p. 210"
"And now, at half-past ten o'clock, I hear the cockerels crow in Hubbard's barns, and morning is already anticipated. It is the feathered, wakeful thought in us that anticipates the following day. July 11, 1851"
"I wish to suggest that a man may be very industrious, and yet not spend his time well. There is no more fatal blunderer than he who consumes the greater part of his life getting his living. All great enterprises are self-supporting. The poet, for instance, must sustain his body by his poetry, as a steam planing-mill feeds its boilers with the shavings it makes. You must get your living by loving. pp. 486–7"
Website: Wikiquote - Henry David Thoreau (Life Without Principle (1863))
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"Use this collection whenever you need Henry David Thoreau's lens on Time."