Henry David Thoreau Quotes (701 Quotes)

Things do not change; we change.

We can never have enough of nature. We must be refreshed by the sight of inexhaustible vigor.

The laboring man has not leisure for a true integrity day by day.

The birds I heard today, which, fortunately, did not come within the scope of my science, sang as freshly as if it had been the first morningof creation.

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

A farmer, a hunter, a soldier, a reporter, even a philosopher, may be daunted but nothing can deter a poet, for he is actuated by pure love. Who can predict his comings and goings His business calls him out at all hours, even when doctors sleep.

Do what nobody else can do for you. Omit to do anything else.

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

What a fool he must be who thinks that his El Dorado is Anywhere but where he lives.

With all your science can you tell how it is, and whence it is, that Light comes into the soul

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

For every thousand hacking at the leaves of evil, there is one striking at the root.

Only the defeated and deserters go to war.

The Youth gets together the materials to build a bridge to the moon, or perchance a palace or temple on earth, but alas, at length, the middle aged man concludes to build a wood shed with the materials.

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?

Is not disease the rule of existence There is not a lily pad floating on the river but has been riddled by insects. Almost every shrub and tree has its gall, oftentimes esteemed its chief ornament and hardly to be distinguished from the fruit.

There is no remedy for love but to love more.

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

It is best to avoid the beginnings of evil.

So thouroughly and sincerely are we compelled to reverencing our lives and denying the possibility of change. This is the only way we say, but there are so many ways, as there can be drawn radii from the center.

When it's time to die, let us not discover that we have never lived.

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

I would give all the wealth of the world, and all the deeds of all the heroes, for one true vision.

Why should we live with such hurry and waste of life We are determined to be starved before we are hungry. Men say that a stitch in time saves nine, and so they take a thousand stitches today to save nine tomorrow.

I say beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes.

Almost any man knows how to earn money, but not one in a million knows how to spend it.

Goodness is the only investment which never fails.

We should go forth on the shortest walk perchance, in the spirit of undying adventure, never to return, - prepared to send back our embalmed hearts only as relics to our desolate kingdoms.

Any man more right than his neighbors constitutes a majority of one.

We have built for this world a family mansion, and the next a family tomb. The best works of art are the expression of man's struggle to free himself from this condition, but the effect of our art is merely to make this low state comfortable and that higher state to be forgotten.

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'

Men rush to California and Australia as if the true gold were to be found in that direction but that is to go to the very opposite extreme to where it lies. They go prospecting farther and farther away from the true lead, and are most unfortunate when they think themselves most successful.

The universe seems bankrupt as soon as we begin to discuss the characters of individuals.

If a thousand men were not to pay their tax-bills this year, that would not be a violent and bloody measure, as it would be to pay them, and enable the State to commit violence and shed innocent blood.

Talk of mysteries Think of our life in Nature daily to be shown matter, To come in contact with it rocks, trees, wind on our cheeks. The solid earth ...

Let us make distinctions, call things by the right names

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.

How full of the creative genius is the air in which these (snowflakes) are generated. I should hardly admire them more if real stars fell and lodged on my coat.

When I hear the hypercritical quarreling about grammar and style, the position of the particles, etc., etc., . . . I see that they forget that the first requisite and rule is that expression shall be vital and natural . . .

Live the life you've dreamed.

There are continents and seas in the moral world, to which every man is an isthmus or inlet, yet unexplored by him.

A man sits as many risks as he runs.

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

To inherit property is not to be born - is to be stillborn, rather

After all the field of battle possesses many advantages over the drawing-room. There at least is no room for pretension or excessive ceremony, no shaking of hands or rubbing of noses, which make one doubt your sincerity, but hearty as well as hard hand-pl

It takes two to speak the truth: one to speak, and another to hear.

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

What men call social virtues, good fellowship, is commonly but the virtue of pigs in a litter, which lie close together to keep each other warm.

We are made happy when reason can discover no occasion for it. The memory of some past moments is more persuasive than the experience of present ones.

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.