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Henry David Thoreau Quotes and Quotations


He is the best sailor who can steer within fewest points of the wind, and exact a motive power out of the greatest obstacles.
- Henry David Thoreau | Ability and Achievement Quotes
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.
- Henry David Thoreau | Ability and Achievement Quotes
The frontiers are not east or west, north or south, but wherever a man fronts a fact.
- Henry David Thoreau | Action Quotes
Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity. I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumbnail.
- Henry David Thoreau | Advice Quotes
What recommends commerce to me is its enterprise and bravery. It does not clasp its hands and pray to Jupiter.
- Henry David Thoreau | Capitalism Quotes
I think that there is nothing, not even crime, more opposed to poetry, to philosophy, ay, to life itself than this incessant business.
- Henry David Thoreau | Capitalism Quotes
City life - millions of people being lonesome together.
- Henry David Thoreau | The City and the Country Quotes
That man is richest whose pleasures are the cheapest.
- Henry David Thoreau | Enjoyment and Pleasure Quotes
Most of the luxuries, and many of the so-called comforts, of life are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind.
- Henry David Thoreau | Enjoyment and Pleasure Quotes
Experience is in the fingers and the head. The heart is inexperienced.
- Henry David Thoreau | Experience Quotes
Every generation laughs at the old fashions but religiously follows the new.
- Henry David Thoreau | Fashion Quotes
How often we find ourselves turning our backs on our actual friends, that we may go and meet their ideal cousins.
- Henry David Thoreau | Friends and Friendship Quotes
If I knew ... that a man was coming to my house with the conscious design of doing me good, I should run for my life.
- Henry David Thoreau | Goodness and Giving Quotes
Through our own recovered innocence we discern the innocence of our neighbours.
- Henry David Thoreau | Innocence Quotes
To know that we know what we know, and that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge.
- Henry David Thoreau | Knowledge Quotes
'Tis healthy to be sick sometimes.
- Henry David Thoreau | Medicine and Sickness Quotes
A man is rich in proportion to the things he can afford to let alone.
- Henry David Thoreau | Money Quotes
What is morality but immemorial custom? Conscience is the chief of conservatives.
- Henry David Thoreau | Morality and Ethics Quotes
You cannot receive a shock unless you have an electric affinity for that which shocks you.
- Henry David Thoreau | Morality and Ethics Quotes
Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life. So aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something.
- Henry David Thoreau | Morality and Ethics Quotes
I frequently tramped eight or ten miles through the deepest snow to keep an appointment with a beech tree, or a yellow birch, or an old acquaintance among the pines.
- Henry David Thoreau | Nature Quotes
The bluebird carries the sky on his back.
- Henry David Thoreau | Nature Quotes
The eye is the jewel of the body.
- Henry David Thoreau | Observation Quotes
Colour, which is the poet's wealth, is so expensive that most take to mere outline sketches and become men of science.
- Henry David Thoreau | Poets and Poetry Quotes
Politics is the gizzard of society, full of gut and gravel.
- Henry David Thoreau | Politics Quotes
There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the roots.
- Henry David Thoreau | Revolution and Reform Quotes
Society is commonly too cheap. We meet at very short intervals, not having had time to acquire any new value for each other. We meet at meals three times a day, and give each other a new taste of that old musty cheese that we are.
- Henry David Thoreau | Society and Social Quotes
I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude.
- Henry David Thoreau | Solitude Quotes
If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavours to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.
- Henry David Thoreau | Success Quotes
I have travelled a good deal in Concord.
- Henry David Thoreau | Travel and Travellers Quotes
I think that we may safely trust a good deal more than we do.
- Henry David Thoreau | Trust Quotes
Between whom there is hearty truth, there is love.
- Henry David Thoreau | Truth Quotes
It takes two to speak the truth - one to speak, and another to hear.
- Henry David Thoreau | Truth Quotes
It is characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.
- Henry David Thoreau | Wisdom Quotes
Beware all enterprises that require new clothes.
- Henry David Thoreau | Work Quotes
How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.
- Henry David Thoreau | Writers and Writing Quotes
We like that a sentence should read as if its author, had he held a plough instead of a pen, could have drawn a furrow deep and straight to the end.
- Henry David Thoreau | Writers and Writing Quotes
As for style of writing, if one has anything to say, it drops from him simply and directly, as a stone falls to the ground.
- Henry David Thoreau | Writers and Writing Quotes
The youth gets together this material to build a bridge to the moon, or perchance, a palace or temple on earth, and at length, the middle-aged man concludes to build a woodshed with them.
- Henry David Thoreau | Youth Quotes
Man is the artificer of his own happiness.
- Henry David Thoreau | Happiness Quotes
The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.
- Henry David Thoreau | Acceptance Quotes
When a dog runs at you, whistle for him.
- Henry David Thoreau | Acceptance Quotes
However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names. It is not so bad as you are. It looks poorest when you are richest. The fault-finder will find faults even in Paradise. Love your life.
- Henry David Thoreau | Forgiveness Quotes
That man is richest whose pleasures are the cheapest.
- Henry David Thoreau | Forgiveness Quotes
A man is rich in proportion to the things he can afford to let alone.
- Henry David Thoreau | Forgiveness Quotes
Goodness is the only investment that never fails.
- Henry David Thoreau | Helping Other People Quotes
A man cannot be said to succeed in this life who does not satisfy one friend.
- Henry David Thoreau | Friendship Quotes
There is not so good an understanding between any two, but the exposure by the one of a serious fault in the other will produce a misunderstanding in proportion to its heinousness.
- Henry David Thoreau | Friendship Quotes
How often we find ourselves turning our backs on our actual friends, that we may go and meet their ideal cousins.
- Henry David Thoreau | Friendship Quotes
The language of friendship is not words, but meanings.
- Henry David Thoreau | Friendship Quotes
It's only by forgetting yourself that you draw near to God.
- Henry David Thoreau | God Quotes
We must have infinite faith in each other.
- Henry David Thoreau | Faith and Unity Quotes
Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after.
- Henry David Thoreau | Self-Knowledge Quotes
What a man thinks of himself, that is what determines, or rather indicates, his fate.
- Henry David Thoreau | Self-Acceptance Quotes
Shall a man go and hang himself because he belongs to the race of pygmies, and not be the biggest pygmy that he can?
- Henry David Thoreau | Self-Acceptance Quotes
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.
- Henry David Thoreau | Self-Confidence Quotes
Man is the artificer of his own happiness.
- Henry David Thoreau | Self-Reliance Quotes
Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand. ... Simplify, simplify.
- Henry David Thoreau | Simplicity Quotes
Gather ye rose-buds while ye may, Old time is still a-flying. And this same flower that smiles today, Tomorrow will be dying.
- Henry David Thoreau | One Day Quotes
As if you could kill time without injuring eternity.
- Henry David Thoreau | One Day Quotes
Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in.
- Henry David Thoreau | One Day Quotes
He is blessed over all mortals who loses no moment of the passing life.
- Henry David Thoreau | This Moment Quotes
Only that day dawns to which we are awake.
- Henry David Thoreau | Mornings Quotes
We are always paid for our suspicion by finding what we suspect.
- Henry David Thoreau | Positive Quotes
The faultfinder will find faults even in paradise.
- Henry David Thoreau | Positive Quotes
What a man thinks of himself, that is what determines, or rather indicates, his fate.
- Henry David Thoreau | Positive Quotes
Events, circumstances, etc., have their origin in ourselves. They spring from seeds which we have sown.
- Henry David Thoreau | Positive Quotes
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.
- Henry David Thoreau | Positive Quotes
None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.
- Henry David Thoreau | Enthusiasm Quotes
Things do not change; we change.
- Henry David Thoreau | Change Quotes
Misfortunes occur only when a man is false.... Events, circumstances, etc., have their origin in ourselves. They spring from seeds which we have sown.
- Henry David Thoreau | Right Quotes
The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.
- Henry David Thoreau | Realistic Expectations Quotes
Shall a man go and hang himself because he belongs to the race of pygmies, and not be the biggest pygmy that he can?
- Henry David Thoreau | Realistic Expectations Quotes
Shall a man go and hang himself because he belongs to the race of pygmies, and not be the biggest pygmy that he can?
- Henry David Thoreau | Realistic Expectations Quotes
Not only must we be good, but we must also be good for something.
- Henry David Thoreau | Goals Quotes
In the long run men hit only what they aim at. Therefore, though they should fall immediately, they had better aim at something high.
- Henry David Thoreau | Goals Quotes
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.
- Henry David Thoreau | Goals Quotes
Nothing is so much to be feared as fear.
- Henry David Thoreau | Fear Quotes
However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names. It is not so bad as you are.
- Henry David Thoreau | Courage Quotes
The frontiers are not east or west, north or south, but wherever a man fronts a fact.
- Henry David Thoreau | Courage Quotes
Where there is a brave man, in the thickest of the fight, there is the post of honor.
- Henry David Thoreau | Courage Quotes
If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imaged, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours.
- Henry David Thoreau | Success Quotes
Where there is a brave man, in the thickest of the fight, there is the post of honor.
- Henry David Thoreau | Success Quotes
Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.
- Henry David Thoreau | Success Quotes
Only he is successful in his business who makes that pursuit which affords him the highest pleasure sustain him.
- Henry David Thoreau | Work Quotes
Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.
- Henry David Thoreau | Work Quotes
Whate'er we leave to God, God does and blesses us.
- Henry David Thoreau | Action Quotes
Gnaw your own bone; gnaw at it, bury it, unearth it, gnaw it still.
- Henry David Thoreau | No pressure, no diamonds. Quotes
This life is not for complaint, but for satisfaction.
- Henry David Thoreau | Self-Pity Quotes
When I hear music, I fear no danger. I am invulnerable. I see no foe. I am related to the earliest times, and to the latest.
- Henry David Thoreau | Applause Quotes
The most I can do for my friend is simply to be his friend.
- Henry David Thoreau | Family Quotes
Friends will not only live in harmony, but in melody.
- Henry David Thoreau | Family Quotes
The finest workers in stone are not copper or steel tools, but the gentle touches of air and water working at their leisure with a liberal allowance of time.
- Henry David Thoreau | Nature Quotes
The bluebird carries the sky on his back.
- Henry David Thoreau | Nature Quotes
For many years I was self-appointed inspector of snowstorms and rainstorms, and did my duty faithfully, though I never received one cent for it.
- Henry David Thoreau | Nature Quotes
Live your beliefs and you can turn the world around.
- Henry David Thoreau | Spirituality Quotes
Compliments and flattery oftenest excite my contempt by the pretension they imply; for who is he that assumes to flatter me? To compliment often implies an assumption of superiority in the complimenter. It is, in fact, a subtle detraction.
- Henry David Thoreau | Compliment Quotes
Water is the only drink for a wise man.
- Henry David Thoreau | Drinking Quotes
Some circumstantial evidence is very strong, as when you find a trout in the milk.
- Henry David Thoreau | Evidence Quotes
I would rather sit on a pumpkin, and have it all to myself, than to be crowded on a velvet cushion.
- Henry David Thoreau | Cowardice Quotes
Man is the artificer of his own happiness.
- Henry David Thoreau | Happiness Quotes
I would rather sit on a pumpkin, and have it all to myself, than to be crowded on a velvet cushion.
- Henry David Thoreau | Independence Quotes
I have received no more than one or two letters in my life that were worth the postage.
- Henry David Thoreau | Letter Quotes
Men have become the tools of their tools.
- Henry David Thoreau | Machine Quotes
Money is not required to buy one necessity of the soul.
- Henry David Thoreau | Money Quotes
Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life so. Aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something.
- Henry David Thoreau | Morality Quotes
When I would recreate myself, I seek the darkest wood, the thickest and most interminable, and to the citizen, most dismal swamp. I enter a swamp as a sacred place - a sanctum sanctorum. There is the strength, the marrow of Nature.
- Henry David Thoreau | Nature Quotes
Do what you love. Know your own bone; gnaw at it, bury it, unearth it, and gnaw it still.
- Henry David Thoreau | Perseverance Quotes
It is life near the bone, where it is sweetest.
- Henry David Thoreau | Poverty Quotes
Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.
- Henry David Thoreau | Prison Quotes
The highest law gives a thing to him who can use it.
- Henry David Thoreau | Property Quotes
The highest law gives a thing to him who can use it.
- Henry David Thoreau | Property Quotes
Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all.
- Henry David Thoreau | Reading Quotes
That man is the richest whose pleasures are the cheapest.
- Henry David Thoreau | Riches Quotes
I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude.
- Henry David Thoreau | Solitude Quotes
For many years I was self-appointed inspector of snowstorms and rain-storms and did my duty faithfully.
- Henry David Thoreau | Storm Quotes
It takes two to speak the truth - one to speak, and another to hear.
- Henry David Thoreau | Trust Quotes
I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude.
- Henry David Thoreau | Never Quotes
I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude.
- Henry David Thoreau | Never Quotes
I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude.
- Henry David Thoreau | Never Quotes
I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude.
- Henry David Thoreau | Never Quotes
I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude.
- Henry David Thoreau | Never Quotes
I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude.
- Henry David Thoreau | Never Quotes
I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude.
- Henry David Thoreau | Never Quotes
I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude.
- Henry David Thoreau | Never Quotes


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