Quotes by Henry David Thoreau
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.
Thoreau, Henry David
Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in.
Thoreau, Henry David
He enjoys true leisure who has time to improve his soul's estate.
Thoreau, Henry David
Distrust any enterprise that requires new clothes.
Thoreau, Henry David
Some circumstantial evidence is very strong, as when you find a trout in the milk.
Thoreau, Henry David
Me thinks that the moment my legs begin to move, my thoughts begin to flow.
Thoreau, Henry David
Good for the body is the work of the body, and good for the soul is the work of the soul, and good for either is the work of the other.
Thoreau, Henry David
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.
Thoreau, Henry David
One cannot too soon forget his errors and misdemeanors; for to dwell upon them is to add to the offense.
Thoreau, Henry David
To a small man every greater is an exaggeration.
Thoreau, Henry David
I once had a sparrow alight upon my shoulder for a moment, while I was hoeing in a village garden, and I felt that I was more distinguished by that circumstance that I should have been by any epaulet I could have worn.
Thoreau, Henry David
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.
Thoreau, Henry David
It appears to be a law that you cannot have a deep sympathy with both man and nature.
Thoreau, Henry David
We now no longer camp as for a night, but have settled down on earth and forgotten heaven.
Thoreau, Henry David
Our houses are such unwieldy property that we are often imprisoned rather than housed by them.
Thoreau, Henry David
The hero is commonly the simplest and obscurest of men.
Thoreau, Henry David
To him whose elastic and vigorous thought keeps pace with the sun, the day is a perpetual morning.
Thoreau, Henry David
We are double-edged blades, and every time we whet our virtue the return stroke strops our vice.
Thoreau, Henry David
I have a great deal of company in the house, especially in the morning when nobody calls.
Thoreau, Henry David
Fire is the most tolerable third party.
Thoreau, Henry David
The sun is but a morning star.
Thoreau, Henry David
I believe that water is the only drink for a wise man.
Thoreau, Henry David
It often happens that a man is more humanely related to a cat or dog than to any human being.
Thoreau, Henry David
However mean your life is, meet it and live it: do not shun it and call it hard names. Cultivate poverty like a garden herb, like sage. Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends. Things do not change, we change. Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts.
Thoreau, Henry David
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.
Thoreau, Henry David
If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment.
Thoreau, Henry David
We should distrust any enterprise that requires new clothes.
Thoreau, Henry David
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.
Thoreau, Henry David
I believe that there is a subtle magnetism in Nature, which, if we unconsciously yield to it, will direct us aright.
Thoreau, Henry David