Henry David Thoreau quotes

It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.

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.

Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.

The lawyer's truth is not Truth, but consistency or a consistent expediency.

There will never be a really free and enlightened State until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power and authority are derived, and treats him accordingly.

The rarest quality in an epitaph is truth.

The language of friendship is not words but meanings.

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.

That government is best which governs least.

I think that there is nothing, not even crime, more opposed to poetry, to philosophy, ay, to life itself than this incessant business.

What is human warfare but just this; an effort to make the laws of God and nature take sides with one party.

A man cannot be said to succeed in this life who does not satisfy one friend.

If I knew for a certainty that a man was coming to my house with the conscious design of doing me good, I should run for my life.

Every creature is better alive than dead, men and moose and pine trees, and he who understands it aright will rather preserve its life than destroy it.

We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers. A man thinking or working is always alone, let him be where he will.

Be not simply good - be good for something.

Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in.

I did not wish to take a cabin passage, but rather to go before the mast and on the deck of the world, for there I could best see the moonlight amid the mountains. I do not wish to go below now.

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.

Nature is full of genius, full of the divinity; so that not a snowflake escapes its fashioning hand.

It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right.

Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all.

So thoroughly and sincerely are we compelled to live, reverencing our life, and denying the possibility of change. This is the only way, we say; but there are as many ways as there can be drawn radii from one centre. All change is a miracle to contemplate; but it is a miracle which is taking place every instant.

There is no remedy for love but to love more.

Dreams are the touchstones of our character.

How does it become a man to behave towards the American government today? I answer, that he cannot without disgrace be associated with it.

Nature puts no question and answers none which we mortals ask. She has long ago taken her resolution.

A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone.

Wealth is the ability to fully experience life.

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

That government is best which governs least.

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.

Though I do not believe that a plant will spring up where no seed has been, I have great faith in a seed... Convince me that you have a seed there, and I am prepared to expect wonders.

If I knew for a certainty that a man was coming to my house with the conscious design of doing me good, I should run for my life.

Truth is always in harmony with herself, and is not concerned chiefly to reveal the justice that may consist with wrong-doing.

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

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

As if you could kill time without injuring eternity.

Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.

What is human warfare but just this; an effort to make the laws of God and nature take sides with one party.

The bluebird carries the sky on his back.

There is no value in life except what you choose to place upon it and no happiness in any place except what you bring to it yourself.

If a man walks in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer. But if he spends his days as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making the earth bald before her time, he is deemed an industrious and enterprising citizen.

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.

Not only must we be good, but we must also be good for something.

Men have become the tools of their tools.

This world is but a canvas to our imagination.

Live the life you've dreamed.

Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.

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.

When I hear music, I fear no danger. I am invulnerable. I see no foe. I am related to the earliest times, and to the latest.

Thank God men cannot fly, and lay waste the sky as well as the earth.

What is human warfare but just this; an effort to make the laws of God and nature take sides with one party.

All men are children, and of one family. The same tale sends them all to bed, and wakes them in the morning.

To a philosopher all news, as it is called, is gossip, and they who edit and read it are old women over their tea.

Live your life, do your work, then take your hat.

If I knew for a certainty that a man was coming to my house with the conscious design of doing me good, I should run for my life.

Every creature is better alive than dead, men and moose and pine trees, and he who understands it aright will rather preserve its life than destroy it.

Wealth is the ability to fully experience life.

If you would convince a man that he does wrong, do right. Men will believe what they see.

None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.

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

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

Men are born to succeed, not to fail.

There are moments when all anxiety and stated toil are becalmed in the infinite leisure and repose of nature.

If the machine of government is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law.

Things do not change; we change.

It appears to be a law that you cannot have a deep sympathy with both man and nature.

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

The life which men praise and regard as successful is but one kind. Why should we exaggerate any one kind at the expense of the others?

Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked, in which you can walk with love and reverence.

Though I do not believe that a plant will spring up where no seed has been, I have great faith in a seed... Convince me that you have a seed there, and I am prepared to expect wonders.

The heart is forever inexperienced.

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

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

Friends... they cherish one another's hopes. They are kind to one another's dreams.

The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.

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

True friendship can afford true knowledge. It does not depend on darkness and ignorance.

They can do without architecture who have no olives nor wines in the cellar.

If an injustice requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter-friction to stop the government machine.

To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.

Thank God men cannot fly, and lay waste the sky as well as the earth.

As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler; solitude will not be solitude, poverty will not be poverty, nor weakness weakness.

I had three chairs in my house; one for solitude, two for friendship, three for society.

Friends... they cherish one another's hopes. They are kind to one another's dreams.

We must walk consciously only part way toward our goal, and then leap in the dark to our success.

The language of excitement is at best picturesque merely. You must be calm before you can utter oracles.

The most I can do for my friend is simply be his friend.

What is called genius is the abundance of life and health.

What is called genius is the abundance of life and health.

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.

Generally speaking, a howling wilderness does not howl: it is the imagination of the traveler that does the howling.

Ignorance and bungling with love are better than wisdom and skill without.

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

Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.

In my afternoon walk I would fain forget all my morning occupations and my obligations to society.

This world is but a canvas to our imagination.

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.

Men have a respect for scholarship and learning greatly out of proportion to the use they commonly serve.

If the machine of government is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law.

Faith keeps many doubts in her pay. If I could not doubt, I should not believe.

I think that there is nothing, not even crime, more opposed to poetry, to philosophy, ay, to life itself than this incessant business.

The perception of beauty is a moral test.

Men have a respect for scholarship and learning greatly out of proportion to the use they commonly serve.

Wealth is the ability to fully experience life.

'Tis healthy to be sick sometimes.

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

It is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.

Live your beliefs and you can turn the world around.

If a man walks in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer. But if he spends his days as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making the earth bald before her time, he is deemed an industrious and enterprising citizen.

Nature and human life are as various as our several constitutions. Who shall say what prospect life offers to another?

Shall I not have intelligence with the earth? Am I not partly leaves and vegetable mould myself.

All this worldly wisdom was once the unamiable heresy of some wise man.

It appears to be a law that you cannot have a deep sympathy with both man and nature.

Thank God men cannot fly, and lay waste the sky as well as the earth.

Our life is frittered away by detail... simplify, simplify.

As in geology, so in social institutions, we may discover the causes of all past changes in the present invariable order of society.

Do what you love. Know your own bone; gnaw at it, bury it, unearth it, and gnaw it still.

Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after.

It is remarkable how closely the history of the apple tree is connected with that of man.

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.

Aim above morality. Be not simply good, be good for something.

Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake.

True friendship can afford true knowledge. It does not depend on darkness and ignorance.

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.

Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake.

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

When I hear music, I fear no danger. I am invulnerable. I see no foe. I am related to the earliest times, and to the latest.

It is only when we forget all our learning that we begin to know.