Quotes By Henry David Thoreau

There is no odor so bad as that which arises from goodness tainted.

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation.

The fibers of all things have their tension and are strained like the strings of an instrument.

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

God reigns when we take a liberal view, when a liberal view is presented to us.

In the long run, men hit only what they aim at. Therefore, they had better aim at something high.

What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lives within us.

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

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

Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends... Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts.

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

The universe is wider than our views of it.

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.

The heart is forever inexperienced.

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?

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.

We are always paid for our suspicion by finding what we suspect.

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

It is never too late to give up our prejudices.

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

If you can speak what you will never hear, if you can write what you will never read, you have done rare things.

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

Be not simply good - be good for something.

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

What old people say you cannot do, you try and find that you can. Old deeds for old people, and new deeds for new.

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

There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.

Only he is successful in his business who makes that pursuit which affords him the highest pleasure sustain him.

We are not what we are, nor do we treat or esteem each other for such, but for what we are capable of being.

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.