Quotes by Henry David Thoreau

wooden pedestal

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

section label

 simplicity  

Add your own tags  

Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in.
Thoreau, Henry David

section label

 time  

Add your own tags  

He enjoys true leisure who has time to improve his soul's estate.
Thoreau, Henry David

section label

 leisure  

Add your own tags  

Distrust any enterprise that requires new clothes.
Thoreau, Henry David

section label

 clothing  

Add your own tags  

Some circumstantial evidence is very strong, as when you find a trout in the milk.
Thoreau, Henry David

section label

 cats  

Add your own tags  

Me thinks that the moment my legs begin to move, my thoughts begin to flow.
Thoreau, Henry David

section label

 walking  

Add your own tags  

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

section label

 wise-sayings  

Add your own tags  

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

section label

 mistakes  

Add your own tags  

To a small man every greater is an exaggeration.
Thoreau, Henry David

section label

 exaggeration  

Add your own tags  

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

section label

 birds  

Add your own tags  

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

section label

 mankind  

Add your own tags  

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

section label

 environment  

Add your own tags  

We now no longer camp as for a night, but have settled down on earth and forgotten heaven.
Thoreau, Henry David

section label

 camping  

Add your own tags  

Our houses are such unwieldy property that we are often imprisoned rather than housed by them.
Thoreau, Henry David

section label

 property  

Add your own tags  

The hero is commonly the simplest and obscurest of men.
Thoreau, Henry David

section label

 firefighters  

Add your own tags  

To him whose elastic and vigorous thought keeps pace with the sun, the day is a perpetual morning.
Thoreau, Henry David

section label

 morning  sun  

Add your own tags  

We are double-edged blades, and every time we whet our virtue the return stroke strops our vice.
Thoreau, Henry David

section label

 virtue  

Add your own tags  

I have a great deal of company in the house, especially in the morning when nobody calls.
Thoreau, Henry David

section label

 solitude  

Add your own tags  

Fire is the most tolerable third party.
Thoreau, Henry David

section label

 fire  

Add your own tags  

The sun is but a morning star.
Thoreau, Henry David

section label

 morning  sun  

Add your own tags  

I believe that water is the only drink for a wise man.
Thoreau, Henry David

section label

 water  

Add your own tags  

It often happens that a man is more humanely related to a cat or dog than to any human being.
Thoreau, Henry David

section label

 animal  

Add your own tags  

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

section label

 poverty  

Add your own tags  

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

section label

 virtue  

Add your own tags  

If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment.
Thoreau, Henry David

section label

 adversity  

Add your own tags  

We should distrust any enterprise that requires new clothes.
Thoreau, Henry David

section label

 civilization  

Add your own tags  

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

section label

 nature  

Add your own tags  

Your Ad Here