Henry David Thoreau Quotes

Over 150000 Famous Quotes

browse by authors:

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Home > Authors: T > Henry David Thoreau Quotes

Henry David Thoreau

Birthday: July 12, 1817
Deathday: May 06, 1862
Category: American Author
Type: Author
National: American

Rate:

link to us:
Link for Email and IM:	Link for website and blogs:

Similar Authors

Ellen Muth
Aaliyah
Stephen Ambrose
John Abizaid
Berenice Abbott
Betsy Ross
Abigail Adams
Carl D. Anderson
Eli Whitney
Aaron Allston
William Hooper
Arthur Alexander
Albert Ellis
Allen Dulles
Rufus King

A truly good book teaches me better than to read...

Be true to your work, your word, and your friend....

Dreams are the touchstones of our character....

Being is the great explainer....

A broad margin of leisure is as beautiful in a...

A man is rich in proportion to the number of...

A man's interest in a single bluebird is worth more...

After the first blush of sin comes its indifference....

Aim above morality. Be not simply good, be good for...

Alas! how little does the memory of these human inhabitants...

All endeavor calls for the ability to tramp the last...

All men are children, and of one family. The same...

All this worldly wisdom was once the unamiable heresy of...

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

An unclean person is universally a slothful one....

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

As a single footstep will not make a path on...

As for doing good; that is one of the professions...

As if you could kill time without injuring eternity....

As in geology, so in social institutions, we may discover...

As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe...

Be not simply good - be good for something....

Before printing was discovered, a century was equal to a...

Beware of all enterprises that require a new set of...

Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the...

Books are to be distinguished by the grandeur of their...

Books can only reveal us to ourselves, and as often...

Could a greater miracle take place than for us to...

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

Distrust any enterprise that requires new clothes....

Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out...

Do not hire a man who does your work for...

Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether...

Do not worry if you have built your castles in...

Do what nobody else can do for you. Omit to...

Do what you love. Know your own bone; gnaw at...

Every creature is better alive than dead, men and moose...

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

Every man casts a shadow; not his body only, but...

Every people have gods to suit their circumstances....

Faith keeps many doubts in her pay. If I could...

Faith never makes a confession....

Friends... they cherish one another's hopes. They are kind to...

Front yards are not made to walk in, but, at...

Generally speaking, a howling wilderness does not howl: it is...

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the...

God reigns when we take a liberal view, when a...

Goodness is the only investment that never fails....

Great men, unknown to their generation, have their fame among...

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

How can any man be weak who dares to be...

How could youths better learn to live than by at...

How does it become a man to behave towards the...

How many things there are concerning which we might well...

How vain it is to sit down to write when...

I am sorry to think that you do not get...

I did not wish to take a cabin passage, but...

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

I have a great deal of company in the house,...

I have always been regretting that I was not as...

I have been as sincere a worshipper of Aurora as...

I have found that hollow, which even I had relied...

I have learned, that if one advances confidently in the...

I have never found a companion that was so companionable...

I have seen how the foundations of the world are...

I have thought there was some advantage even in death,...

I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable...

I love to be alone. I never found the companion...

I never found a companion that was so companionable as...

I put a piece of paper under my pillow, and...

I say beware of all enterprises that require new clothes,...

I think that there is nothing, not even crime, more...

I was more independent than any farmer in Concord, for...

I went to the woods because I wished to live...

I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it...

If a man constantly aspires is he not elevated?...

If a man does not keep pace with his companions,...

If a man walks in the woods for love of...

If I knew for a certainty that a man was...

If I seem to boast more than is becoming, my...

If it is surely the means to the highest end...

If misery loves company, misery has company enough....

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams,...

If the machine of government is of such a nature...

If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall...

If you can speak what you will never hear, if...

If you have built castles in the air, your work...

If you would convince a man that he does wrong,...

Ignorance and bungling with love are better than wisdom and...

In human intercourse the tragedy begins, not when there is...

In my afternoon walk I would fain forget all my...

In the long run, men hit only what they aim...

In the meanest are all the materials of manhood, only...

In wilderness is the preservation of the world....

Instead of noblemen, let us have noble villages of men....

Is the babe young? When I behold it, it seems...

It appears to be a law that you cannot have...

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

It is an interesting question how far men would retain...

It is best to avoid the beginnings of evil....

It is better to have your head in the clouds,...

It is never too late to give up our prejudices....

It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the...

It is not enough to be busy. So are the...

It is not part of a true culture to tame...

It is only when we forget all our learning that...

It is remarkable how closely the history of the apple...

It is the greatest of all advantages to enjoy no...

It is too late to be studying Hebrew; it is...

It is usually the imagination that is wounded first, rather...

It is what a man thinks of himself that really...

It takes two to speak the truth: one to speak,...

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

Justice is sweet and musical; but injustice is harsh and...

Live the life you've dreamed....

Live your beliefs and you can turn the world around....

Live your life, do your work, then take your hat....

Make the most of your regrets; never smother your sorrow,...

Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing...

May we so love as never to have occasion to...

Men are born to succeed, not to fail....

Men have a respect for scholarship and learning greatly out...

Men have become the tools of their tools....

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

Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to...

Most of the luxuries and many of the so-called comforts...

Nature and human life are as various as our several...

Nature is full of genius, full of the divinity; so...

Nature puts no question and answers none which we mortals...

Nature will bear the closest inspection. She invites us to...

Nay, be a Columbus to whole new continents and worlds...

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

Night is certainly more novel and less profane than day....

No face which we can give to a matter will...

None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm....

Not only must we be good, but we must also...

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

Nothing goes by luck in composition. It allows of no...

Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have...

Old deeds for old people, and new deeds for new....

Only he is successful in his business who makes that...

Only that day dawns to which we are awake....

Our houses are such unwieldy property that we are often...

Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract...

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

Our moments of inspiration are not lost though we have...

Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake....

Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked, in which you...

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

Read the best books first, or you may not have...

Shall I not have intelligence with the earth? Am I...

Simplify, simplify....

Some are reputed sick and some are not. It often...

Success usually comes to those who are too busy to...

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

That man is rich whose pleasures are the cheapest....

Thaw with her gentle persuasion is more powerful than Thor...

The Artist is he who detects and applies the law...

The bluebird carries the sky on his back....

The cost of a thing is the amount of what...

The fibers of all things have their tension and are...

The finest workers in stone are not copper or steel...

The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when...

The heart is forever inexperienced....

The language of excitement is at best picturesque merely. You...

The language of friendship is not words but meanings....

The law will never make a man free; it is...

The lawyer's truth is not Truth, but consistency or a...

The light which puts out our eyes is darkness to...

The man who goes alone can start today; but he...

The man who is dissatisfied with himself, what can he...

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation....

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

The perception of beauty is a moral test....

The price of anything is the amount of life you...

The rarest quality in an epitaph is truth....

The savage in man is never quite eradicated....

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

The squirrel that you kill in jest, dies in earnest....

The universe is wider than our views of it....

The youth gets together his materials to build a bridge...

There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil...

There are certain pursuits which, if not wholly poetic and...

There are moments when all anxiety and stated toil are...

There are old heads in the world who cannot help...

There is always a present and extant life, be it...

There is but one stage for the peasant and the...

There is danger that we lose sight of what our...

There is more of good nature than of good sense...

There is no just and serene criticism as yet....

There is no more fatal blunderer than he who consumes...

There is no odor so bad as that which arises...

There is no remedy for love but to love more....

There is no rule more invariable than that we are...

There is no value in life except what you choose...

There is one consolation in being sick; and that is...

There never was and is not likely soon to be...

They can do without architecture who have no olives nor...

Things do not change; we change....

This world is but a canvas to our imagination....

Those whom we can love, we can hate; to others...

Through our own recovered innocence we discern the innocence of...

Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in....

'Tis healthy to be sick sometimes....

To a philosopher all news, as it is called, is...

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

To be admitted to Nature's hearth costs nothing. None is...

To have done anything just for money is to have...

True friendship can afford true knowledge. It does not depend...

Truth is always in harmony with herself, and is not...

Truths and roses have thorns about them....

Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place...

We are always paid for our suspicion by finding what...

We are not what we are, nor do we treat...

We know but a few men, a great many coats...

We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not...

We must walk consciously only part way toward our goal,...

We shall see but a little way if we require...

We should distrust any enterprise that requires new clothes....

Wealth is the ability to fully experience life....

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

What is human warfare but just this; an effort to...

What is once well done is done forever....

What is the use of a house if you haven't...

What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us...

What old people say you cannot do, you try and...

What you get by achieving your goals is to as...

What's the use of a fine house if you haven't...

When I hear music, I fear no danger. I am...

Where there is an observatory and a telescope, we expect...

While civilization has been improving our houses, it has not...

Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed,...

You must live in the present, launch yourself on every...