Quotes By Henry David Thoreau

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

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

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.

I was more independent than any farmer in Concord, for I was not anchored to a house or farm, but could follow the bent of my genius, which is a very crooked one, every moment.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

In human intercourse the tragedy begins, not when there is misunderstanding about words, but when silence is not understood.

What is the use of a house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on?

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

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.

It is what a man thinks of himself that really determines his fate.

Wealth is the ability to fully experience life.

If a man constantly aspires is he not elevated?

Live your beliefs and you can turn the world around.

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

Night is certainly more novel and less profane than day.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

It is too late to be studying Hebrew; it is more important to understand even the slang of today.

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.

I put a piece of paper under my pillow, and when I could not sleep I wrote in the dark.