Henry David Thoreau Quotes

Unjust laws exist: shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once?

Nature will bear the closest inspection. She invites us to lay our eye level with her smallest leaf, and take an insect view of its plain.

I believe that water is the only drink for a wise man.

If I am not I, who will be?

Every man is the builder of a temple called his body.

I have, as it were, my own sun and moon and stars, and a little world all to myself.

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

To be awake is to be alive.

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

Live free, child of the mist,- and with respect to knowledge we are allchildren of the mist.

Trees indeed have hearts.

There has always been the same amount of light in the world. The new and missing stars, the comets and eclipses, do not affect thegeneral illumination, for only our glasses appreciate them.

Surely the apple is the noblest of fruits.

The stars are the apexes of what triangles!

None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.

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

I come to my solitary woodland walk as the homesick go home. I thus dispose of the superfluous and see things as they are, grand and beautiful.

The West of which I speak is but another name for the Wild, and what I have been preparing to say is, that in Wildness is the preservation of the World

Dreams are the touchstones of our character.

Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end.

Morning glory is the best name, it always refreshes me to see it.

To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.

He who walks alone, waits for no-one.

All endeavour calls for the ability to tramp the last mile, shape the last plan, endure the last hours toil.

The Artist is he who detects and applies the law from observation of the works of Genius, whether of man or Nature. The Artisan is he who merely applies the rules which others have detected.

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

It is remarkable how closely the history of the apple tree is connected with that of man.

It is never too late to give up our prejudices.

Who could believe in the prophecies ... that the world would end this summer, while one milkweed with faith matured its seeds.

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

The way you spend Christmas is far more important than how much.

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

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

Give me the old familiar world, post-office and all, with this ever new self, with this infinite expectation and faith, which does not know when it is beaten.

When I hear a grown man or woman say, "Once I had faith in men, now I have not," I am inclined to ask, "Who are you whom the world has disappointed? Have not you rather disappointed the world?"

Glances of true beauty can be seen in the faces of those who live in true meekness.

To have done anything just for money is to have been truly idle.

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

How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.

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

There is no beginning too small.

Did ever a man try heroism, magnanimity, truth, sincerity, and find that there was no advantage in them - that it was a vain endeavor?

We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers.

We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aid, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn.

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

Men are born to succeed, not to fail.

Not that the story need be long, but it will take a long while to make it short.

In the long run, you hit only what you aim at.

To say that a man is your Friend means commonly no more than this, that he is not your enemy.

Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends... Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts.