There was all this talk when Obama got elected about how we were living in a postracial world. But we're not. Until we get to the point where James Earl Jones can play, say, George Washington, race matters. You wouldn't put a white actor in blackface to play Othello. You shouldn't have a white actor in what amounts to yellowface to play Asian.
David Henry Hwang
Related I always approach every play based on the cast. When Denzel and I did 'Fences,' I didn't... KENNY LEON It's funny when people ask an actor what they want to play next, because you don't get to de... DYLAN WALSH For Bobby and I to sing R&B and sound black was probably the stupidest thing we could do. White ... BILL MEDLEY With theatre, we all agree to suspend our disbelief about so many things, but not about race. It'... DAVID HENRY HWANG You only have a few years to play this game and you can't play it if you're all tied up in k... WILLIE STARGELL We were ready to launch Barry White, but the record company wouldn't put it out. Said it wouldn&... BARRY WHITE I have an occasionally recurring stutter, but not when in character on stage in a play. Odd. James E... JOHN CASEY We have different personalities, but in a harmonious way, I'd say. Anyway, we were booked to pla... BENNY GREEN I get a lot of people saying to me, 'Oh, you're the actor who plays the nutters,' and I&... EDDIE MARSAN Listen to the Beatles' 'Things We Said Today.' Ringo Starr does not play a fill in the e... BENMONT TENCH When people say, 'You run like a girl; you play like a girl,' it's not what it used to b... ALEX MORGAN That's what I was trying to say when we were talking about sound. I think that every person, whe... ORNETTE COLEMAN When I got to the reading all the work, I was reduced to being an actor in an experimental play that... DAVID ANTIN I'm not saying that what the radio plays isn't good. My issue is with what they don't pl... DJ JAZZY JEFF If you want a bourgeois existence, you shouldn't be an actor. You're in the wrong profession... UTA HAGEN In the South we experienced, you know, some black kids who gave us a hard time because - cause '... STUART SCOTT I know what's good for me. I can't play black or gray. I can't be a villain or anything ... ALAN LADD Once you're a football player, you're a football player for life. You always think of yourse... PETE CARROLL I don't think there's any serious discussion inside the Chinese government about liberalisin... REBECCA MACKINNON When I'm not acting, I try to be normal, play golf, play hockey. It's funny because you'... TAYLOR KITSCH I saw 'Othello' with Christopher Plummer and James Earl Jones. ERIC MCCORMACK I don't blame David Stern because a player gets on the court and he doesn't put out competit... OSCAR ROBERTSON I play trumpet. And I took all the music courses in college, so I can also play the string instrumen... JON TESTER Part of my strength as an actor comes from what I've learned all these years: when you play a vi... JOHN FORSYTHE As an actor, whether you look good or you don't, it's still about what you look like: Whethe... CHERRY JONES When you're confined to a TV series, and you have to play one character, it can make you insane.... JOHNNY DEPP An actor shouldn't undergo psychoanalysis, because there are a lot of things you're better o... PAUL LYNDE As a jobbing actor, you can't afford to be choosy; if you're typed, you're generally wor... ROBERT ENGLUND I have a friend who is very successful in business, and his motto is, 'Don't do what you can... ROB LOWE The reason we had an all-black outfield in '51 is Don Mueller got hurt, so Hank Thompson was a l... MONTE IRVIN When we can't determine what is art - when you get to that point where we're not sure, that&... RICHARD PHILLIPS The answer isn't more time but a greater awareness of the time we have. CRAIG GROESCHEL Are you taking us to the beach?" - Dan Cahill JUDE WATSON The Sixth Sense is not a good white film. Insomnia is not a good white film. They're just good f... ERIQ LA SALLE Acting is so exciting to me. It's a thrill; otherwise I wouldn't do it. Not to be hokey, but... ELIZABETH MITCHELL There aren't as many roles, and I think there's a lack of openness in casting an Asian chara... KIMIKO GLENN There were definitely dark nights when you're like, 'Maybe joining the military wasn't s... ADAM DRIVER If we're going to talk about our businesses, we're going to have to talk about them within t... BARRY DILLER It's not how you start the season, it's how you finish. If you wind up helping the team make... ALBERT PUJOLS I get that racism exists, but it's not a catalyst for my content. I don't need to talk about... KEVIN HART I don't play villainy. I wouldn't even know how to play it. KEVIN SPACEY Yeah. I'm amateurish. I can play enough to write a song, or strum on a little guitar to write ou... BEN E. KING You spend enough time on set as an actor and it's great when a director was at some point an act... IAN SOMERHALDER White people get nervous and speed things up. You don't have to be in a hurry because you ain... BILLY GIBBONS We didn't have a garage to rehearse in. We had to aggravate the folks in the house. But I got a ... CHARLIE DANIELS When did Jimmy Stewart not play Jimmy Stewart? When did John Wayne not play John Wayne? But that'... JOHN MELLENCAMP It's not that white guys shouldn't be allowed to engage in discussions on race in America. B... JOHN RIDLEY You know, I don't play the race card a lot. I'm half-black, half-white, and I'm proud of... SHEMAR MOORE I'm very much a believer in the character always heading for something or after something. But t... MONICA DOLAN I am a method actor, but I'm also a film actor as well as a method actor. Characters that don... VINCENT D'ONOFRIO There's been many times when a producer will say, 'I don't think you want to say that.... TYLER JOSEPH The truth of the matter is, I am a black woman, and I am an actor. I don't try to get caught up ... CONDOLA RASHAD It looks ancient," - Amy Cahill JUDE WATSON When we don't have information, we go to the simplest outlook, to black and white. But then we h... PATRICIA SUN My thing was play as hard as you can, don't be stupid, pay attention to details, and have enough... JOE PATERNO In live action movies, you just hope that everything works. Because the actor may had a bad morning ... JOHN HENCH When you're an actor or actress in this business, usually the natural progression is to direct, ... JAMIE FOXX The Muslim world just doesn't believe that skin color is all that important. Obama may be half-b... BEN SHAPIRO Let's put it this way: there wouldn't be much point in me attending a high-school reunion no... CLINT EASTWOOD Let me put it this way: If you're sitting in a movie and you're watching me, and you say, ... MICHAEL CAINE As an ambiguously non-white actor, I've been able to play light-skinned African American guys, L... DANIEL SUNJATA In a play, you know where you start and end and all the stops you have to do, but in television, you... CAITLIN FITZGERALD Most of us live in a fog. It's like life is a movie we arrived to 20 minutes late. You know some... JOHN ELDREDGE Obviously you have to have rhythm. If you have rhythm, then you can play anything you need. If you h... EDDIE VAN HALEN When you're in a spacecraft, you need to know what things you can touch and what things you shou... BUZZ ALDRIN As a community, we're fighting for Asians to play Asian roles. And then there's the other ba... ROSS BUTLER I think we dream so we don't have to be apart so long. If we're in each other's dreams, ... BILL WATTERSON The world changes. The world is completely different now from when I was growing up. Back then, you ... JOHNNY MATHIS I didn't really understand what you did when you went in front of the camera. And then suddenly ... LARS MIKKELSEN Our intent of how we're going to play doesn't change. DAN QUINN If you're going to have a satisfactory standard of living, you're going to have to be compet... BOB MCNAIR You know, when we get to a point in this country where dissent is extremism, we've turned, I thi... MICHAEL STEELE If the music in a groove fits with what you're playing, then play it; if not, then you can play ... CHRISTIAN MARCLAY The thing is, I want to play real characters and not all girls can be pretty. The thing is, you get ... JULIETTE LEWIS There's nothing I dislike more than being in a photo shoot where they say, 'Be yourself.'... MARGOT ROBBIE When we started there was this element of these experiments we were doing where we weren't reall... WAYNE COYNE I'm Italian. I wouldn't know how to play a Jew. ALEX ROCCO Disco was brand new then and there were a few jocks that had monstrous sound systems but they wouldn... GRANDMASTER FLASH Surveys of thousands of gamers have shown that they're more likely to play real music if they pl... JANE MCGONIGAL If you're a classical actor, every Shakespearean part you play, you then say, 'McKellen did ... DOUGLAS HODGE If you don't have a tonne of optimism, you're not going to make it... you won't be able ... ASTRO TELLER I think it's very insulting to say, 'White people don't understand.' What are you ta... KIMBERLY GUILFOYLE Each of us views life through a different lens. What we think is colored by the baggage we carry, an... LAURIE BUCHANAN, PHD I'm the guy who plays human beings. I understand why the characters are doing what they're d... EDDIE MARSAN When I used to say I wanted to play at Wimbledon, they used to laugh in my face and say, 'What a... SANIA MIRZA 'Frida' was a joy; this was delicious, I couldn't wait every day to get to the set, alth... SALMA HAYEK Players today moan about the number of games, but when you're young, you can't play enough. GEORGE BEST I did four or five years in telly, and by the end of it was drained. I was a bit sick of myself. I d... MATTHEW MACFADYEN The only thing that I know how to do as an actor, as a trained actor, is you can't villainize th... COREY HAWKINS It's incredibly fun to play someone that you don't like. It exorcises your own demons in a w... ED HELMS You know, there're no rules between Russell and I. We don't want to have to have to talk too... BENNY GREEN When you're in a play like 'Kean,' you can't think of anything else. Love is too tim... JEAN-PAUL BELMONDO There are so many aspects of human sexuality that we're afraid to talk about, because people sti... SASHA GREY You can't actually be just a movie actor in Britain, because we don't make that many movies. DAVID THEWLIS The way I look at it, a footballer wouldn't play in flip-flops or dip their feet in acid and the... JESSIE J I mean, it's fine when you're a kid and someone runs into the playground and goes, 'I... MAX IRONS But in a tournament, you can be said in for all your money at any point so you can't make any mi... AL ALVAREZ You can talk about all the ways we struggled, but it goes in the left hand column and that's all tha... STEW MORRILL The thing about being an actor is that you're acting. It's not that big of a deal of to play... CAMERON MONAGHAN As a kid, I was going to be a marine biologist or an actor. When I became successful as an actor, I ... LEONARDO DICAPRIO
More David Henry Hwang
My first plays were amazingly bad, but I had a teacher who thought I had promise, and he kept workin... DAVID HENRY HWANG My work has always been controversial within certain segments of the Asian-American community. This ... DAVID HENRY HWANG Chinese culture in general is not very religious. Confucianism is more a code of ethics than a relig... DAVID HENRY HWANG I visited a new cultural center in Shanghai in 2005 that was pretty much perfect, except for the rea... DAVID HENRY HWANG As Asian-Americans, the charge that is often lobbed against us is sort of the least original: the id... DAVID HENRY HWANG With theatre, we all agree to suspend our disbelief about so many things, but not about race. It'... DAVID HENRY HWANG I'm interested in internationalism. It's the new multiculturalism. How we deal with each oth... DAVID HENRY HWANG There is something very unique in American iconography about this notion of the pursuit of happiness... DAVID HENRY HWANG I knew I was Chinese, but growing up, it never occurred to me that that had any particular implicati... DAVID HENRY HWANG I'm happy. Which often looks like crazy. DAVID HENRY HWANG 'Yellow Face' marks my summation of multiculturalism. DAVID HENRY HWANG I felt pretty good growing up. I didn't feel a lot of prejudice or racism. But I do remember, if... DAVID HENRY HWANG You can't be a playwright without believing there's an audience for adventurous work. DAVID HENRY HWANG My father has always been interested in discarding the past. He's never much liked China or the ... DAVID HENRY HWANG I am almost famous in China, because I have that Broadway cachet. DAVID HENRY HWANG My new play 'Chinglish,' which will go to Broadway, is about a white American businessman wh... DAVID HENRY HWANG We all deal with failure. If you're lucky to have a long career, it's part of the experience... DAVID HENRY HWANG I think that plays are probably the most personal, because it's just me in charge, but sometimes... DAVID HENRY HWANG With a musical, you kind of have to do a mind-meld with the book-writer, the lyricist, the composer,... DAVID HENRY HWANG You aren't allowed to ask at auditions, legally, a person's race. DAVID HENRY HWANG For a long time, it was hard for me to get my work done in Chicago. Silk Road gave me opportunities ... DAVID HENRY HWANG I've studied Chinese in college, but basically, I'm not bilingual. DAVID HENRY HWANG If I do a play, it's my vision, and everybody else is working on the production to support that.... DAVID HENRY HWANG I define the American dream as the ability to imagine a way that you want your life to turn out, and... DAVID HENRY HWANG As soon as a Western man comes into contact with the East -- he's already confused. The West has sor... DAVID HENRY HWANG A man is in love when something in his head, something in his and chest and something in his pants r... BRIAN HWANG The opposite of love is not hate, the opposite of love is ignorance. BRIAN HWANG Undoubtedly North Korea thinks it will be able to reach a very specific deal with the United States ... BALBINA HWANG While it is correct that sovereign countries do in principle have the right to pursue civilian nucle... BALBINA HWANG And we have to send the message that that can simply not occur. BALBINA HWANG Looking at it with a cool head, the Fed's comments are not that unexpected. JASON HWANG The price has to be right -- anything above $499 really doesn't sell. DIANA HWANG They will eventually offer corporate IT a lower cost of ownership, and will become the secondary dev... DIANA HWANG With the ruling, Icahn can get just one board member at best. HWANG CHAN Global markets have not been affected by the possibility of rising U.S. interest rates. Japan and th... JASON HWANG A correction was inevitable given the market is facing three clear near-term risks: weak first-quart... JASON HWANG The biggest impact in today's trade is coming from the reduced worries about U.S. interest rates see... JASON HWANG Oil prices could be a worry. We're not at the stage of a serious rise (in oil prices), so the impact... JASON HWANG Must be out-of-doors enough to get experience of wholesome reality, as a ballast to thought and sent... HENRY DAVID Women are walking around on the streets. From her calf and the hem of her skirt to her hip, from her... HWANG SOK-YONG After analyzing the data, our team concluded that the results . . . could not be trusted. HWANG WOO SUK I would like to have time to confirm the validity of the technology. HWANG WOO SUK I apologize to the people for creating an unspeakable shock and disappointment. I step down as profe... HWANG WOO SUK I respectfully ask legal authorities to launch an investigation as soon as possible. I am desperate ... HWANG WOO SUK I sincerely apologize to the people for creating a shock and disappointment. HWANG WOO SUK When the use of these stem cells is limited to a particular country, it takes much too long to creat... HWANG WOO SUK I feel so crushed and humiliated that I hardly have the energy to say I am sorry. I seek your forgiv... HWANG WOO SUK The use of fake data ... is what I have to take full responsibility for as first author. I acknowled... HWANG WOO SUK I take full responsibility for the papers and offer you my apology. HWANG WOO SUK I sincerely apologize to the nation and the international community for using erroneous data in the ... HWANG WOO SUK Mistakes [were] made, human errors, in taking photographs and in the preservation of the stem cells. HWANG WOO SUK I definitely have the source technology to produce tailored embryonic stem cells. I can replicate th... HWANG WOO SUK As the lead author of the papers in which fake data appeared, I hold myself wholly responsible and I... HWANG WOO SUK I truly find it difficult even to say I am apologetic (for the fabrication). HWANG WOO SUK Our research team made patient-specific embryonic stem cells and we have the technology to produce t... HWANG WOO SUK I apologize for creating this uproar both in and out of Korea. The fact remains that our research te... HWANG WOO SUK Technology for patient-specific embryonic stem cells belongs to South Korea. And you will find out t... HWANG WOO SUK There is no doubt that we produced 11 patient-specific stem cells and possess the core technology to... HWANG WOO SUK I sincerely apologize to the nation for using erroneous data in the papers. HWANG WOO SUK Aim above morality. Be not simply good, be good for something. HENRY DAVID THOREAU So thoroughly and sincerely are we compelled to live, reverencing our life, and denying the possibil... HENRY DAVID THOREAU In the meanest are all the materials of manhood, only they are not rightly disposed. HENRY DAVID THOREAU If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment. HENRY DAVID THOREAU We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers. ... HENRY DAVID THOREAU What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lives within us. HENRY DAVID THOREAU Though I do not believe that a plant will spring up where no seed has been, I have great faith in a ... HENRY DAVID THOREAU Live your beliefs and you can turn the world around. HENRY DAVID THOREAU How sweet is the perception of a new natural fact! HENRY DAVID THOREAU God reigns when we take a liberal view, when a liberal view is presented to us. HENRY DAVID THOREAU Night is certainly more novel and less profane than day. HENRY DAVID THOREAU It is remarkable how closely the history of the apple tree is connected with that of man. HENRY DAVID THOREAU All men are children, and of one family. The same tale sends them all to bed, and wakes them in the ... HENRY DAVID THOREAU It is not part of a true culture to tame tigers, any more than it is to make sheep ferocious. HENRY DAVID THOREAU We are all sculptors and painters, and our material is our own flesh and blood and bones. Any noblen... HENRY DAVID THOREAU Simplify, simplify. HENRY DAVID THOREAU To be awake is to be alive. HENRY DAVID THOREAU What is the use of a house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on? HENRY DAVID THOREAU Before printing was discovered, a century was equal to a thousand years. HENRY DAVID THOREAU There is one consolation in being sick; and that is the possibility that you may recover to a better... HENRY DAVID THOREAU The perception of beauty is a moral test. HENRY DAVID THOREAU I did not wish to take a cabin passage, but rather to go before the mast and on the deck of the worl... HENRY DAVID THOREAU What is once well done is done forever. HENRY DAVID THOREAU In human intercourse the tragedy begins, not when there is misunderstanding about words, but when si... HENRY DAVID THOREAU There are old heads in the world who cannot help me by their example or advice to live worthily and ... HENRY DAVID THOREAU The squirrel that you kill in jest, dies in earnest. HENRY DAVID THOREAU We must walk consciously only part way toward our goal, and then leap in the dark to our success. HENRY DAVID THOREAU That government is best which governs least. HENRY DAVID THOREAU Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed, and in such desperate enterprises? If a man doe... HENRY DAVID THOREAU Be not simply good - be good for something. HENRY DAVID THOREAU Shall I not have intelligence with the earth? Am I not partly leaves and vegetable mould myself. HENRY DAVID THOREAU Justice is sweet and musical; but injustice is harsh and discordant. HENRY DAVID THOREAU It is what a man thinks of himself that really determines his fate. HENRY DAVID THOREAU Nature is full of genius, full of the divinity; so that not a snowflake escapes its fashioning hand. HENRY DAVID THOREAU What is called genius is the abundance of life and health. HENRY DAVID THOREAU To a philosopher all news, as it is called, is gossip, and they who edit and read it are old women o... HENRY DAVID THOREAU There is no value in life except what you choose to place upon it and no happiness in any place exce... HENRY DAVID THOREAU While civilization has been improving our houses, it has not equally improved the men who are to inh... HENRY DAVID THOREAU Live the life you've dreamed. HENRY DAVID THOREAU As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler; solitude will not be solitude, ... HENRY DAVID THOREAU The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation... HENRY DAVID THOREAU Goodness is the only investment that never fails. HENRY DAVID THOREAU The most I can do for my friend is simply be his friend. HENRY DAVID THOREAU Never look back unless you are planning to go that way. HENRY DAVID THOREAU I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion. HENRY DAVID THOREAU Truths and roses have thorns about them. HENRY DAVID THOREAU Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves. HENRY DAVID THOREAU The language of friendship is not words but meanings. HENRY DAVID THOREAU We know but a few men, a great many coats and breeches. HENRY DAVID THOREAU It takes two to speak the truth: one to speak, and another to hear. HENRY DAVID THOREAU The savage in man is never quite eradicated. HENRY DAVID THOREAU Our life is frittered away by detail... simplify, simplify. HENRY DAVID THOREAU Live your life, do your work, then take your hat. HENRY DAVID THOREAU Do what you love. Know your own bone; gnaw at it, bury it, unearth it, and gnaw it still. HENRY DAVID THOREAU Nature will bear the closest inspection. She invites us to lay our eye level with her smallest leaf,... HENRY DAVID THOREAU There is no remedy for love than to love more. HENRY DAVID THOREAU Love must be as much a light, as it is a flame. HENRY DAVID THOREAU I heartily accept the motto,That government is best which governs least; and I should like to see it... HENRY DAVID THOREAU I must walk toward Oregon, and not toward Europe. And that way the nation is moving, and I may say t... HENRY DAVID THOREAU Eastward I go only by force; but westward I go free. HENRY DAVID THOREAU Nothing is so much to be feared as fear. HENRY DAVID THOREAU There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root, and it may ... HENRY DAVID THOREAU Drive a nail home and clinch it so faithfully that you can wake up in the night and think of your wo... HENRY DAVID THOREAU I lose my respect for the man who can make the mystery of sex the subject of a coarse jest, yet when... HENRY DAVID THOREAU Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They ar... HENRY DAVID THOREAU Every man will be a poet if he can; otherwise a philosopher or man of science. This proves the super... HENRY DAVID THOREAU If a man is alive, there is always danger that he may die, though the danger must be allowed to be l... HENRY DAVID THOREAU If I shall sell both my forenoons and afternoons to society, as most appear to do, I'm sure that, fo... HENRY DAVID THOREAU I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life... HENRY DAVID THOREAU Whether the flower looks better in the nosegay than in the meadow where it grew and we had to wet ou... HENRY DAVID THOREAU A perfectly healthy sentence, it is true, is extremely rare. For the most part we miss the hue and f... HENRY DAVID THOREAU The bluebird carries the sky on his back. HENRY DAVID THOREAU It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see. HENRY DAVID THOREAU The world is but a canvas to our imagination. HENRY DAVID THOREAU This world is but a canvas to our imaginations. HENRY DAVID THOREAU Humility like darkness reveals the heavenly lights. HENRY DAVID THOREAU The government of the world I live in was not framed, like that of Britain, in after-dinner conversa... HENRY DAVID THOREAU Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments are so... HENRY DAVID THOREAU This American government -- what is it but a tradition, though a recent one, endeavoring to transmit... HENRY DAVID THOREAU If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of government, let it go, let it g... HENRY DAVID THOREAU Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves. HENRY DAVID THOREAU A man's interest in a single bluebird is worth more than a complete but dry list of the fauna an... HENRY DAVID THOREAU It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for law, so much as a respect for right. HENRY DAVID THOREAU Whatever the human law may be, neither an individual nor a nation can commit the least act of injust... HENRY DAVID THOREAU The lawyer's truth is not Truth, but consistency or a consistent expediency. HENRY DAVID THOREAU There is something servile in the habit of seeking after a law which we may obey. We may study the l... HENRY DAVID THOREAU The pleasure we feel in music springs from the obedience which is in it. HENRY DAVID THOREAU Knowledge does not come to us in details, but in flashes of light from heaven. HENRY DAVID THOREAU The knowledge of an unlearned man is living and luxuriant like a forest, but covered with mosses and... HENRY DAVID THOREAU In the long run, we only hit what we aim at. HENRY DAVID THOREAU The broadest and most prevalent error requires the most disinterested virtue to sustain it. HENRY DAVID THOREAU That virtue we appreciate is as much ours as another's. We see so much only as we possess. HENRY DAVID THOREAU The universe seems bankrupt as soon as we begin to discuss the characters of individuals. HENRY DAVID THOREAU We perceive and are affected by changes too subtle to be described. HENRY DAVID THOREAU If the fairest features of the landscape are to be named after men, let them be the noblest and wort... HENRY DAVID THOREAU A name pronounced is the recognition of the individual to whom it belongs. He who can pronounce my n... HENRY DAVID THOREAU I fear chiefly lest my expression may not be extravagant enough, may not wander far enough beyond th... HENRY DAVID THOREAU Explore thyself. Herein are demanded the eye and the nerve. HENRY DAVID THOREAU I know myself as a human entity; the scene, so to speak, or thoughts are affection; and am sensible ... HENRY DAVID THOREAU Sometimes we are inclined to class those who are once-and-a-half witted with the half-witted, becaus... HENRY DAVID THOREAU I frequently tramped eight or ten miles through the deepest snow to keep an appointment with a beech... HENRY DAVID THOREAU You must not know too much or be too precise or scientific about birds and trees and flowers and wat... HENRY DAVID THOREAU We are double-edged blades, and every time we whet our virtue the return stroke straps our vice. HENRY DAVID THOREAU If we knew all the laws of Nature, we should need only one fact, or the description of one actual ph... HENRY DAVID THOREAU A minority is powerless while it conforms to the majority. HENRY DAVID THOREAU In eternity there is indeed something true and sublime. But all these times and places and occasions... HENRY DAVID THOREAU Time is but the stream I go fishing in. I drink at it, but while I drink I see the sandy bottom and ... HENRY DAVID THOREAU You cannot kill time without injuring eternity. HENRY DAVID THOREAU A man thinks as well through his legs and arms as this brain. HENRY DAVID THOREAU Thought is the sculptor who can create the person you want to be. HENRY DAVID THOREAU To him whose elastic and vigorous thought keeps pace with the sun, the day is a perpetual morning. HENRY DAVID THOREAU Associate reverently, as much as you can, with your loftiest thoughts. HENRY DAVID THOREAU How can they expect a harvest of thought who have not had the seed time of character. HENRY DAVID THOREAU Each thought that is welcomed and recorded is a nest egg by the side of which more will be laid. HENRY DAVID THOREAU Having each some shingles of thought well dried, we sat and whittled them. HENRY DAVID THOREAU Nay, be a Columbus to whole new continents and worlds within you, opening new channels, not of trade... HENRY DAVID THOREAU As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway ... HENRY DAVID THOREAU Superfluous wealth can buy superfluities only. HENRY DAVID THOREAU A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone. HENRY DAVID THOREAU Superfluous wealth can buy superfluities only. Money is not required to buy one necessary of the sou... HENRY DAVID THOREAU I have a deep sympathy with war, it so apes the gait and bearing of the soul. HENRY DAVID THOREAU That man is richest whose pleasures are the cheapest. HENRY DAVID THOREAU The rich man is always sold to the institution which makes him rich. Absolutely speaking, the more m... HENRY DAVID THOREAU A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can let alone. HENRY DAVID THOREAU We are made happy when reason can discover no occasion for it. The memory of some past moments is mo... HENRY DAVID THOREAU It requires nothing less than a chivalric feeling to sustain a conversation with a lady. HENRY DAVID THOREAU How earthy old people become --moldy as the grave! Their wisdom smacks of the earth. There is no for... HENRY DAVID THOREAU A friend is one who incessantly pays us the compliment of expecting from us all the virtues, and who... HENRY DAVID THOREAU We have not so good a right to hate any as our Friend. HENRY DAVID THOREAU A man cannot be said to succeed in this life who does not satisfy one friend. HENRY DAVID THOREAU To say that a man is your Friend, means commonly no more than this, that he is not your enemy. Most ... HENRY DAVID THOREAU Men have become the tools of their trade. HENRY DAVID THOREAU The really efficient laborer will be found not to crowd his day with work, but will saunter to his t... HENRY DAVID THOREAU There is no more fatal blunderer than he who consumes the greater part of his life getting his livin... HENRY DAVID THOREAU It takes two to speak truth -- one to speak, and another to hear. HENRY DAVID THOREAU Between whom there is hearty truth, there is love. HENRY DAVID THOREAU The man who is dissatisfied with himself, what can he do? HENRY DAVID THOREAU You must get your living by loving, or at least half your life is a failure. HENRY DAVID THOREAU Men are born to succeed, not to fail. HENRY DAVID THOREAU To read well, that is, to read true books in a true spirit, is a noble exercise, and one that will t... HENRY DAVID THOREAU Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all. HENRY DAVID THOREAU