Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) was an American essayist, poet, and philosopher, best known for his book ‚Walden,‘ a reflection on simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay ‚Civil Disobedience,‘ which advocates for individual resistance to unjust government policies. Thoreau’s works have influenced environmental and civil rights movements.
239 quotes
An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.
Henry David ThoreauThis world is but a canvas to our imagination.
Henry David ThoreauRather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.
Henry David ThoreauIt’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.
Henry David ThoreauIf 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.
Henry David ThoreauThe price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.
Henry David ThoreauTime is but the stream I go a-fishing in.
Henry David ThoreauIf 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.
Henry David ThoreauSuccess usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.
Henry David ThoreauMany men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after.
Henry David ThoreauWhat lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lives within us.
Henry David ThoreauHeaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.
Henry David ThoreauNot until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.
Henry David ThoreauI say, beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes.
Henry David ThoreauI know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.
Henry David ThoreauMake the most of your regrets; never smother your sorrow, but tend and cherish it till it comes to have a separate and integral interest. To regret deeply is to live afresh.
Henry David ThoreauI 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.
Henry David ThoreauThere are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.
Henry David ThoreauIt is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?
Henry David ThoreauDisobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves.
Henry David ThoreauI would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion.
Henry David ThoreauNever look back unless you are planning to go that way.
Henry David ThoreauThe mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation.
Henry David ThoreauThings do not change; we change.
Henry David ThoreauThank God men cannot fly, and lay waste the sky as well as the earth.
Henry David ThoreauPursue some path, however narrow and crooked, in which you can walk with love and reverence.
Henry David ThoreauYou must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment.
Henry David ThoreauAs if you could kill time without injuring eternity.
Henry David ThoreauGoodness is the only investment that never fails.
Henry David ThoreauIf 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.
Henry David ThoreauThe smallest seed of faith is better than the largest fruit of happiness.
Henry David ThoreauOur truest life is when we are in dreams awake.
Henry David ThoreauWealth is the ability to fully experience life.
Henry David ThoreauThe language of friendship is not words but meanings.
Henry David ThoreauThere is no remedy for love but to love more.
Henry David ThoreauCould a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other’s eyes for an instant?
Henry David ThoreauIt is better to have your head in the clouds, and know where you are… than to breathe the clearer atmosphere below them, and think that you are in paradise.
Henry David ThoreauNone are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.
Henry David ThoreauNature 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.
Henry David ThoreauIt takes two to speak the truth: one to speak, and another to hear.
Henry David ThoreauThe man who goes alone can start today; but he who travels with another must wait till that other is ready.
Henry David ThoreauIf 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.
Henry David ThoreauA man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone.
Henry David ThoreauLive the life you’ve dreamed.
Henry David ThoreauBe not simply good – be good for something.
Henry David ThoreauOur life is frittered away by detail… simplify, simplify.
Henry David ThoreauLive your beliefs and you can turn the world around.
Henry David ThoreauThat man is rich whose pleasures are the cheapest.
Henry David ThoreauAny fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it.
Henry David ThoreauTruths and roses have thorns about them.
Henry David ThoreauMen have become the tools of their tools.
Henry David ThoreauThere are moments when all anxiety and stated toil are becalmed in the infinite leisure and repose of nature.
Henry David ThoreauIf 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.
Henry David ThoreauThe bluebird carries the sky on his back.
Henry David ThoreauFriends… they cherish one another’s hopes. They are kind to one another’s dreams.
Henry David ThoreauWhat is called genius is the abundance of life and health.
Henry David ThoreauThe perception of beauty is a moral test.
Henry David ThoreauLive your life, do your work, then take your hat.
Henry David ThoreauNothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance; they make the latitudes and longitudes.
Henry David ThoreauDo what you love. Know your own bone; gnaw at it, bury it, unearth it, and gnaw it still.
Henry David Thoreau