Henry David Thoreau

I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual.

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

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined...

Man is the artificer of his own happiness.

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

Distrust any enterprise that requires new clothes.

If a plant cannot live according to its nature, it dies; and so a man.

be yourself- not your idea of what you think somebody else's idea of yourself should be.

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

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

Any fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it.

Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for love of it.

I had three chairs in my house; one for solitude, two for friendship, three for society.

Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.

Live the life you've dreamed.

Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake.

As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler; solitude will not be solitude, poverty will not be poverty, nor weakness weakness.

It takes two to speak the truth: one to speak, and another to hear.

Do what you love. Know your own bone; gnaw at it, bury it, unearth it, and gnaw it still.

You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment.

If I knew for a certainty that a man was coming to my house with the conscious design of doing me good, I should run for my life.

Make the most of your regrets; never smother your sorrow, but tend and cherish it till it comes to have a separate and integral interest. To regret deeply is to live afresh.

I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.

If the machine of government is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law.

Thank God men cannot fly, and lay waste the sky as well as the earth.

There is no remedy for love but to love more.

What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lives within us.

I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion.

Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.

Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves.

There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.

The perception of beauty is a moral test.

Men are born to succeed, not to fail.

How does it become a man to behave towards the American government today? I answer, that he cannot without disgrace be associated with it.

Live your beliefs and you can turn the world around.

There is no value in life except what you choose to place upon it and no happiness in any place except what you bring to it yourself.

Wealth is the ability to fully experience life.

Our life is frittered away by detail... simplify, simplify.

To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.

As if you could kill time without injuring eternity.

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

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.

Dreams are the touchstones of our character.

The youth gets together his materials to build a bridge to the moon, or, perchance, a palace or temple on the earth, and, at length, the middle-aged man concludes to build a woodshed with them.

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

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

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

Never look back unless you are planning to go that way.

I say, beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes.

It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.

Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.

Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after.

Men have become the tools of their tools.

None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.

This world is but a canvas to our imagination.

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

Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.

If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.

The light which puts out our eyes is darkness to us. Only that day dawns to which we are awake. There is more day to dawn. The sun is but a morning star.

Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other's eyes for an instant?

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

It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.

Goodness is the only investment that never fails.

Things do not change; we change.

The language of friendship is not words but meanings.

My whole religion is this: do every duty, and expect no reward for it, either here or hereafter.

It is never too late to give up your prejudices.

An early morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.

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

All men want, not something to do with, but something to do, or rather something to be.

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

City life is millions of people being lonesome together.

This curious world which we inhabit is more wonderful than it is convenient; more beautiful than it is useful; it is more to be admired and enjoyed, then, than it is to be used.

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

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined.