“Man flows at once to God when the channel of purity is open.”

—  Henry David Thoreau , book Walking

Walking (June 1862)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Man flows at once to God when the channel of purity is open." by Henry David Thoreau?
Henry David Thoreau photo
Henry David Thoreau 385
1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitio… 1817–1862

Related quotes

George Müller photo

“The child of God must be willing to be a channel through which God’s bounties flow, both with regard to temporal and spiritual things. This channel is narrow and shallow at first, it may be; yet there is room for some of the waters of God’s bounty to pass through. And if we cheerfully yield ourselves as channels, for this purpose, then the channel becomes wider and deeper, and the waters of the bounty of God can pass through more abundantly.”

George Müller (1805–1898) German-English clergyman

A Narrative of Some of the Lord's Dealings with George Müller Written by Himself, Third Part.
Third Part of Narrative

Thomas à Kempis photo

“Simplicity and purity are the two wings by which a man is lifted above all earthly things. Simplicity is in the intention — purity in the affection. Simplicity tends to God,— purity apprehends and tastes Him.”

Thomas à Kempis (1380–1471) German canon regular

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 545.

Arthur Rimbaud photo

“Once, I remember well, my life was a feast where all hearts opened and all wines flowed.”

Arthur Rimbaud (1854–1891) French Decadent and Symbolist poet

Jadis, si je me souviens bien, ma vie était un festin où s'ouvraient tous les coeurs, où tous les vins coulaient.
Une Saison en Enfer http://www.mag4.net/Rimbaud/poesies/Season.html (A Season in Hell) (1873)

John Lancaster Spalding photo

“What we think out for ourselves forms channels in which other thoughts will flow.”

John Lancaster Spalding (1840–1916) Catholic bishop

Source: Aphorisms and Reflections (1901), p. 274

Saul Bellow photo

“In the greatest confusion there is still an open channel to the soul.”

Saul Bellow (1915–2005) Canadian-born American writer

Foreword to The Closing of the American Mind by Allan Bloom (1987)
General sources
Context: In the greatest confusion there is still an open channel to the soul. It may be difficult to find because by midlife it is overgrown, and some of the wildest thickets that surround it grow out of what we describe as our education. But the channel is always there, and it is our business to keep it open, to have access to the deepest part of ourselves.

Homér photo

“The gods don't hand out all their gifts at once,
not build and brains and flowing speech to all.”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

VIII. 167–168 (tr. Robert Fagles).
Odyssey (c. 725 BC)

Richard Feynman photo

“But, in admitting this, we have probably found the open channel.”

Richard Feynman (1918–1988) American theoretical physicist

The Value of Science (1955)

“The "flow of information" through human communication channels is enormous. So far no theory exists, to our knowledge, which attributes any sort of unambiguous measure to this "flow."”

Anatol Rapoport (1911–2007) Russian-born American mathematical psychologist

Anatol Rapoport (1969) in: Modern Systems Research for the Behavioral Scientist. p. 139
1960s

Lorenzo Snow photo

“As man now is, God once was:
As God now is, man may be.”

Lorenzo Snow (1814–1901) President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Nature of God (see also: God in Mormonism)
http://lds.org/ensign/1982/02/i-have-a-question/i-have-a-question?lang=eng
Is President Lorenzo Snow’s oft-repeated statement—“As man now is, God once was; as God now is, man may be”—accepted as official doctrine by the Church?
I Have a Question
Lund, Gerald N.
February
1982
Ensign

Mikhail Sholokhov photo

“When swept out of its normal channel, life scatters into innumerable streams. It is difficult to foresee which it will take in its treacherous and winding course. Where to-day it flows in shallows, like a rivulet over sandbanks, so shallow that the shoals are visible, to-morrow it will flow richly and fully.”

Mikhail Sholokhov book And Quiet Flows the Don

And Quiet Flows the Don (1934)

Related topics