When I wrote the following pages, or rather the bulk of them, I lived alone, in the woods, a mile from any neighbor, in a house which I built myself, on the shore of Walden Pond, in Concord, Massachusetts, and earned my living by the labor of my two hand only (Walden).
I heartily accept the motto, - "That government is best which governs least;" and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically (Civil Disobedience).

The sun is but a morning star (Walden).
A State which bore this kind of fruit, and suffered it to drop off as fast as it ripened, would prepare the way for a still more perfect and glorious State, which also I have imagined, but not yet anywhere seen (Civil Disobedience).