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| Henry David Thoreau: born July 1817 died May 1862 was a renowned American author, philosopher, and critic |
Quotes by Henry David Thoreau
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.I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestioned ability of a man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.
I do not value any view of the universe into which man and the institutions of man enter very largely and absorb much of the attention. Man is but the place where I stand, and the prospect hence is infinite.
He is the best sailor who can steer within fewest points of the wind, and exact a motive power out of the greatest obstacles.
No human being, past the thoughtless age of boyhood, will wantonly murder any creature which holds its life by the same tenure that he does.
The mass of men lead quiet lives of desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation. From a desperate city you go into the desperate country, and have to console yourself with the bravery of minks and muskrats.
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.
Our last deed, like the young of the land crab, wends its way to the sea of cause and effect as soon as born, and makes a drop there to eternity.
A man is wise with the wisdom of his time only, and ignorant with its ignorance. Observe how the greatest minds yield in some degree to the superstitions of their age.
Our houses are such unwieldy property that we are often imprisoned rather than housed in them.
It is an interesting question how far men would retain their relative rank if they were divested of their clothes.
While my friend was my friend, he flattered me, and I never heard the truth from him. When he became my enemy, he shot it to me on a poisoned arrow.
Almost any man knows how to earn money, but not one in a million know how to spend it. If he had known so much as this, he would never have earned it.
The man who goes alone can start today; but he who travels with another must wait till that other is ready.
Towers and temples are the luxury of princes. A simple and independent mind does not toil at the bidding of any prince.
The finest workers in stone are not copper or steel tools, but the gentle touches of air and water working at their leisure with a liberal allowance of time.
How few things can a man measure with the tape of his understanding; how many greater things might he be seeing in the meanwhile.
Society is commonly too cheap. We meet at very short intervals, not having had time to acquire any new value for each other. We meet at meals three times a day, and give each other a new taste of that old musty cheese that we are.
Nature refuses to sympathize with our sorrow. She seems not to have provided for, but by a thousand contrivances against it.
Men profess to be lovers of music, but for the most part they give no evidence in their opinions and lives that they have heard it. It would not leave them narrow minded and bigoted.
Do not seek so anxiously to be developed, to subject yourself to many influences to be played on; it is all dissipation. Humility like darkness reveals the heavenly lights.
Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life. Aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something.
The really efficient laborer will be found not to crowd his day with work, but will saunter to his task surrounded by a wide halo of ease and leisure.
We cannot well do without our sins; they are the highway of our virtue.
A man cannot be said to succeed in this life who does not satisfy one friend.
There is no odor as bad as that which arises from goodness tainted.
I do not know where to find in any literature, whether ancient or modern, any adequate account of that nature with which I am acquainted. Mythology comes nearest to it of any.
Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes.
If you see a man approaching you with the obvious intent to do you good, you should run for your life.
I think that every town should have a park, or rather a primitive forest, of five hundred or a thousand acres, either in one body or several, where a stick would never be cut for fuel, not for the navy, not to make wagons, but stand and decay for higher uses; a common possession for instruction and recreation.
What does education often do? It makes a straight cut ditch of a free meandering brook.
Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also in prison.
It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look, which morally we can do. To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.
The day advanced as if to light some work of mine; it was morning, and lo! Now it is evening, and nothing memorable is accomplished.
The law will never make men free; it is men who have got to make the law free.
Dreams are the touchstones of our characters.
It is never too late to give up your prejudices.
The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.
Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in.
