Henry David Thoreau Quotes

It appears to be a law that you cannot have a deep sympathy with both man and nature.

It is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.

Politics is the gizzard of society full of gut and gravel.

Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.

He who hears the rippling of rivers in these degenerate days will not utterly despair.

Whate'er we leave to God God does and blesses us.

I heartily accept the motto, "That government is best which governs least"; and I should like to see...

The most I can do for my friend is simply be his friend.

Some circumstantial evidence is very strong, as when you find a trout in the milk.

It is life near the bone where it is sweetest.

Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake.

The Artist is he who detects and applies the law from observation of the works of Genius, whether of...

The language of friendship is not words but meanings.

If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer....

Nature is full of genius, full of the divinity; so that not a snowflake escapes its fashioning hand.

The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.

A single gentle rain makes the grass many shades greener. So our prospects brighten on the influx of...

The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked me what I thought, and attended to ...

Say what you have to say, not what you ought. Any truth is better than make-believe.

Where there is a brave man in the thickest of the fight there is the post of honor.

City life - millions of people being lonesome together.

We are constantly invited to be what we are.

There is one consolation in being sick and that is the possibility that you may recover to a better ...

Wealth is the ability to fully experience life.

While civilization has been improving our houses, it has not equally improved the men who are to inh...

What is human warfare but just this an effort to make the laws of God and nature take sides with one...

Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty.

No man ever followed his genius till it misled him. Though the result were bodily weakness, yet perh...

If you would convince a man that he does wrong, do right. But do not care to convince him. Men will ...

There is no remedy for love but to love more.

The light which puts out our eyes is darkness to us. Only that day dawns to which we are awake. Ther...

We are but faint-hearted crusaders...our expeditions are but tours...half the walk is but retracing ...

It is not enought to be busy, so are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?

It is only when we forget all our learning that we begin to know.

It is only when we forget our learning, do we begin to know.

That man is richest whose pleasures are the cheapest.

Nothing is so much to be feared as fear.

Children, who play life, discern its true law and relations more clearly than men, who fail to live ...

Public opinion is a weak tyrant compared with our own private opinion. what a man thinks of himself,...

Life in us is like the water in a river.

To a philosopher all news, as it is called, is gossip, and they who edit and read it are old women o...

The smallest seed of faith is better than the largest fruit of happiness.

What is called genius is the abundance of life and health.

Unjust laws exist; shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey th...

Even voting for the right is doing nothing for it. It is only expressing to men feebly your desire t...

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation...

Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resigns his conscience to the legislator...

Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience, then? I think tha...

For if the truth were known, Love cannot speak, But only thinks and does; Though surely out 'twill l...

They who suspect a Mephistophiles, or sneering, satirical devil, under all, have not learned the sec...

What is the use of a house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on?

If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment.

The preachers and lecturers deal with men of straw, as they are men of straw themselves. Why, a free...

Any fool can make a ruleAnd any fool will mind it.

Make the most of your regrets; never smother your sorrow, but tend and cherish it till it comes to h...

In the long run men hit only what they aim at. Therefore though they should fall immediately they ...

Truth strikes us from behind and in the dark, as well as from before and in broad daylight.

Though I do not believe that a plant will spring up where no seed has been, I have great faith in a ...

Some of my pleasantest hours were during the long rain-storms in the spring or fall, which confined ...

Money is not required to buy one necessity of the soul.

The animal merely makes a bed, which he warms with his body in a sheltered place; but man, having di...

Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life so. Aim above morality. Be not simply g...

Every man casts a shadow; not his body only, but his imperfectly mingled spirit. This is his grief. ...

You cannot receive a shock unless you have an electric affinity for that which shocks you.

The man who goes alone can start today but he who travels with another must wait till that other is ...

We must walk consciously only part way toward our goal, and then leap in the dark to our success.

The trees and shrubs rear white arms to the sky on every side; and where were walls and fences, we s...

It is not that we love to be alone, but that we love to soar, and when we do soar, the company grows...

It is better to have your head in the clouds, and know where you are... than to breathe the clearer ...

Night is certainly more novel and less profane than day.

Some circumstantial evidence is very strong as when you find a trout in the milk.

My enemies are worms, cool days, and most of all woodchucks.

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams and endeavours to live the life which he...

All men are children, and of one family. The same tale sends them all to bed, and wakes them in the ...

I believe that the mind can be permanently profaned by the habit of attending to trivial things.

I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that if one advances confidently in the direction of his...

Friends will not only live in harmony but in melody.

As in geology, so in social institutions, we may discover the causes of all past changes in the pres...

A perfectly healthy sentence, it is true, is extremely rare. For the most part we miss the hue and f...

For many years I was self-appointed inspector of snowstorms and rain-storms and did my duty faithful...

I have a great deal of company in the house, especially in the morning when nobody calls.

Shall I not have intelligence with the earth? Am I not partly leaves and vegetable mould myself.

It is never too late to give up your prejudices

The question is not what you look at, but what you see.

He is blessed over all mortals who loses no moment of the passing life.

Every generation laughs at the old fashions but religiously follows the new.

The boy gathers materials for a temple, and then when he is thirty, concludes to build a woodshed

Only that day dawns to which we are awake.

However mean your life is meet it and live it do not shun it and call it hard names. It is not so ...

A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone.

Is there not a sort of blood shed when the conscience is wounded? Through this wound a man's real ma...

We like that a sentence should read as if its author had he held a plough instead of a pen could h...

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined

Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked, in which you can walk with love and reverence.

The value of a man is not in his skin, that we should touch him.

Happiness is like a butterfly; the more you chase it, the more it will elude you, but if you turn yo...

Some men fish all their lives without knowing it is not really the fish they are after.

The most I can do for my friend is simply to be his friend.

To read well, that is, to read true books in a true spirit, is a noble exercise, and one that will t...

When I hear music I fear no danger. I am invulnerable. I see no foe. I am related to the earliest t...

The language of friendship is not words but meanings.