Life & Wisdom Quote by Henry David Thoreau

Thoreau treats attention as a moral act, not a social nicety. The “greatest compliment” isn’t praise, applause, or even agreement; it’s the rare moment when another person requests his mind and then actually makes room for it. That second clause, “and attended to my answer,” is the quiet indictment. Asking is easy. Listening costs time, ego, and the willingness to be changed. Thoreau implies most conversation is theater: people solicit opinions the way they solicit weather reports, as filler, as performance, as a cue to speak next.

The line also carries Thoreau’s signature contrarian pride. He spent his life positioning himself against the grain of consensus - at Walden, in “Civil Disobedience,” in his suspicion of mass politics and mass distraction. In that context, to be heard isn’t just personal validation; it’s proof that an individual voice can cut through the noise of society’s default settings. He’s praising a form of respect that modern life reliably erodes: the patient, alert attention that treats another person’s thoughts as something other than content to be mined or refuted.

There’s a subtle democratic edge, too. Thoreau isn’t saying “I was admired.” He’s saying “I was consulted.” The compliment is being recognized as a thinking citizen - and then being granted the dignity of real reception. In a culture of talk, he elevates the radicalism of listening.