Author · American · 1817 – 1862 · 233 quotes
I have been as sincere a worshipper of Aurora as the Greeks.
Henry David Thoreau
Author · American · 1817 – 1862
We should distrust any enterprise that requires new clothes.
Beware of all enterprises that require a new set of clothes.
This world is but a canvas to our imagination.
There is no remedy for love but to love more.
If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours.
Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.
It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.
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.
The savage in man is never quite eradicated.
That government is best which governs least.
Dreams are the touchstones of our character.
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.
A broad margin of leisure is as beautiful in a man's life as in a book. Haste makes waste, no less in life than in housekeeping. Keep the time, observe the hours of the universe, not of the cars.
Never look back unless you are planning to go that way.
Make the most of your regrets; never smother your sorrow, but tend and cherish it till it comes to have a separate and integral interest. To regret deeply is to live afresh.
Men have become the tools of their tools.
The perception of beauty is a moral test.
Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in.
None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.
An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.
The light which puts out our eyes is darkness to us. Only that day dawns to which we are awake. There is more day to dawn. The sun is but a morning star.
The squirrel that you kill in jest, dies in earnest.
After the first blush of sin comes its indifference.
Every people have gods to suit their circumstances.
Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.
Distrust any enterprise that requires new clothes.
Goodness is the only investment that never fails.
I have learned, that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.
Old deeds for old people, and new deeds for new.
An unclean person is universally a slothful one.
It is never too late to give up our prejudices.
Every man casts a shadow; not his body only, but his imperfectly mingled spirit. This is his grief. Let him turn which way he will, it falls opposite to the sun; short at noon, long at eve. Did you never see it?
There is no just and serene criticism as yet.
Shall I not have intelligence with the earth? Am I not partly leaves and vegetable mould myself.
The youth gets together his materials to build a bridge to the moon, or, perchance, a palace or temple on the earth, and, at length, the middle-aged man concludes to build a woodshed with them.
In my afternoon walk I would fain forget all my morning occupations and my obligations to society.
There are certain pursuits which, if not wholly poetic and true, do at least suggest a nobler and finer relation to nature than we know. The keeping of bees, for instance.
The universe is wider than our views of it.
Be not simply good - be good for something.
Great men, unknown to their generation, have their fame among the great who have preceded them, and all true worldly fame subsides from their high estimate beyond the stars.
Only that day dawns to which we are awake.
The bluebird carries the sky on his back.
Truths and roses have thorns about them.
All endeavor calls for the ability to tramp the last mile, shape the last plan, endure the last hours toil. The fight to the finish spirit is the one... characteristic we must posses if we are to face the future as finishers.
It is better to have your head in the clouds, and know where you are... than to breathe the clearer atmosphere below them, and think that you are in paradise.
Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed, and in such desperate enterprises? If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.
Men are born to succeed, not to fail.
