Henry David Thoreau Quotes | GloryQuotes

Henry David Thoreau Quotes About Life

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

Henry David Thoreau

There is always a present and extant life, be it better or worse, which all combine to uphold.

Henry David Thoreau

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

Nature and human life are as various as our several constitutions. Who shall say what prospect life offers to another?

Henry David Thoreau

There is no more fatal blunderer than he who consumes the greater part of his life getting his living.

Henry David Thoreau

How could youths better learn to live than by at once trying the experiment of living?

Henry David Thoreau

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.

Henry David Thoreau

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

Henry David Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau Quotes About Nature

Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance; they make the latitudes and longitudes.

Henry David Thoreau

There are moments when all anxiety and stated toil are becalmed in the infinite leisure and repose of nature.

Henry David Thoreau

There is more of good nature than of good sense at the bottom of most marriages.

Henry David Thoreau

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

Henry David Thoreau

Nature puts no question and answers none which we mortals ask. She has long ago taken her resolution.

Henry David Thoreau

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

Henry David Thoreau

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

Henry David Thoreau

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.

Henry David Thoreau

More Quotes by Henry David Thoreau

Men have a respect for scholarship and learning greatly out of proportion to the use they commonly serve.

Henry David Thoreau

If you would convince a man that he does wrong, do right. Men will believe what they see.

Henry David Thoreau

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

Henry David Thoreau

A man's interest in a single bluebird is worth more than a complete but dry list of the fauna and flora of a town.

Henry David Thoreau

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

Henry David Thoreau

Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations.

Henry David Thoreau

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

Henry David Thoreau

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

Henry David Thoreau

The law will never make a man free; it is men who have got to make the law free.

Henry David Thoreau

It is not part of a true culture to tame tigers, any more than it is to make sheep ferocious.

Henry David Thoreau

I have thought there was some advantage even in death, by which we mingle with the herd of common men.

Henry David Thoreau

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

Henry David Thoreau

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

Henry David Thoreau

True friendship can afford true knowledge. It does not depend on darkness and ignorance.

Henry David Thoreau

As in geology, so in social institutions, we may discover the causes of all past changes in the present invariable order of society.

Henry David Thoreau

Only he is successful in his business who makes that pursuit which affords him the highest pleasure sustain him.

Henry David Thoreau

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

Henry David Thoreau

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

Henry David Thoreau

It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right.

Henry David Thoreau

Alas! how little does the memory of these human inhabitants enhance the beauty of the landscape!

Henry David Thoreau

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

Henry David Thoreau

In the long run, men hit only what they aim at. Therefore, they had better aim at something high.

Henry David Thoreau

Books can only reveal us to ourselves, and as often as they do us this service we lay them aside.

Henry David Thoreau

Where there is an observatory and a telescope, we expect that any eyes will see new worlds at once.

Henry David Thoreau

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

Henry David Thoreau

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

Henry David Thoreau

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

Henry David Thoreau

No face which we can give to a matter will stead us so well at last as the truth. This alone wears well.

Henry David Thoreau

The language of excitement is at best picturesque merely. You must be calm before you can utter oracles.

Henry David Thoreau

Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all.

Henry David Thoreau

Some are reputed sick and some are not. It often happens that the sicker man is the nurse to the sounder.

Henry David Thoreau

It is usually the imagination that is wounded first, rather than the heart; it being much more sensitive.

Henry David Thoreau

Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.

Henry David Thoreau

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

Henry David Thoreau

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

Henry David Thoreau

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

Henry David Thoreau

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

Henry David Thoreau

Ignorance and bungling with love are better than wisdom and skill without.

Henry David Thoreau

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.

Henry David Thoreau

Nothing goes by luck in composition. It allows of no tricks. The best you can write will be the best you are.

Henry David Thoreau

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

Henry David Thoreau

I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude.

Henry David Thoreau

There is danger that we lose sight of what our friend is absolutely, while considering what she is to us alone.

Henry David Thoreau

If you can speak what you will never hear, if you can write what you will never read, you have done rare things.

Henry David Thoreau

All this worldly wisdom was once the unamiable heresy of some wise man.

Henry David Thoreau

It is an interesting question how far men would retain their relative rank if they were divested of their clothes.

Henry David Thoreau

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

Henry David Thoreau

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

Henry David Thoreau

Browse 233 quotes attributed to Henry David Thoreau, listed in the source data as a American Author, organized around themes such as Life, Nature, Love. Use the topic links to explore similar quotes, or browse the full author collection in one place.