Author · American · 1817 – 1862 · 233 quotes
Thank God men cannot fly, and lay waste the sky as well as the earth.
Henry David Thoreau
Author · American · 1817 – 1862
Generally speaking, a howling wilderness does not howl: it is the imagination of the traveler that does the howling.
Money is not required to buy one necessity of the soul.
Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.
Books are to be distinguished by the grandeur of their topics even more than by the manner in which they are treated.
The fibers of all things have their tension and are strained like the strings of an instrument.
I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion.
I have seen how the foundations of the world are laid, and I have not the least doubt that it will stand a good while.
Is the babe young? When I behold it, it seems more venerable than the oldest man.
What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lives within us.
Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends... Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts.
Our houses are such unwieldy property that we are often imprisoned rather than housed by them.
It is too late to be studying Hebrew; it is more important to understand even the slang of today.
I say beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes.
The language of friendship is not words but meanings.
Those whom we can love, we can hate; to others we are indifferent.
Front yards are not made to walk in, but, at most, through, and you could go in the back way.
What you get by achieving your goals is to as important as what you become by achieving your goals.
Faith keeps many doubts in her pay. If I could not doubt, I should not believe.
God reigns when we take a liberal view, when a liberal view is presented to us.
It is only when we forget all our learning that we begin to know.
How many things there are concerning which we might well deliberate whether we had better know them.
There is no rule more invariable than that we are paid for our suspicions by finding what we suspect.
In human intercourse the tragedy begins, not when there is misunderstanding about words, but when silence is not understood.
There never was and is not likely soon to be a nation of philosophers, nor am I certain it is desirable that there should be.
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.
Truth is always in harmony with herself, and is not concerned chiefly to reveal the justice that may consist with wrong-doing.
Live your life, do your work, then take your hat.
Be true to your work, your word, and your friend.
The lawyer's truth is not Truth, but consistency or a consistent expediency.
Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves.
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.
If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment.
To be admitted to Nature's hearth costs nothing. None is excluded, but excludes himself. You have only to push aside the curtain.
Wealth is the ability to fully experience life.
We are not what we are, nor do we treat or esteem each other for such, but for what we are capable of being.
The cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.
It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?
What is called genius is the abundance of life and health.
How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.
There is one consolation in being sick; and that is the possibility that you may recover to a better state than you were ever in before.
In the meanest are all the materials of manhood, only they are not rightly disposed.
What old people say you cannot do, you try and find that you can. Old deeds for old people, and new deeds for new.
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.
Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.
Nay, be a Columbus to whole new continents and worlds within you, opening new channels, not of trade, but of thought.
We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aid, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn.
Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end.
