Henry David Thoreau
This world is but a canvas to our imagination.Collection: Art
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.Collection: Positive
Truth is always in harmony with herself, and is not concerned chiefly to reveal the justice that may consist with wrong-doing.Collection: Truth
Shall I not have intelligence with the earth? Am I not partly leaves and vegetable mould myself.Collection: Intelligence
That government is best which governs least.Collection: Government
Things do not change; we change.Collection: Change
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.Collection: Change
To a philosopher all news, as it is called, is gossip, and they who edit and read it are old women over their tea.Collection: Women
Men have become the tools of their tools.Collection: Men
To have done anything just for money is to have been truly idle.Collection: Money
The man who goes alone can start today; but he who travels with another must wait till that other is ready.Collection: Alone
The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.Collection: Life
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.Collection: Life
We must walk consciously only part way toward our goal, and then leap in the dark to our success.Collection: Success
The lawyer's truth is not Truth, but consistency or a consistent expediency.Collection: Truth
In my afternoon walk I would fain forget all my morning occupations and my obligations to society.Collection: Society
It is remarkable how closely the history of the apple tree is connected with that of man.Collection: History
Nature is full of genius, full of the divinity; so that not a snowflake escapes its fashioning hand.Collection: Nature
It is only when we forget all our learning that we begin to know.Collection: Learning
The bluebird carries the sky on his back.Collection: Nature
Great men, unknown to their generation, have their fame among the great who have preceded them, and all true worldly fame subsides from their high estimate beyond the stars.
If I seem to boast more than is becoming, my excuse is that I brag for humanity rather than for myself.
Books can only reveal us to ourselves, and as often as they do us this service we lay them aside.
Being is the great explainer.
How sweet is the perception of a new natural fact!
The language of excitement is at best picturesque merely. You must be calm before you can utter oracles.
I have found that hollow, which even I had relied on for solid.
There never was and is not likely soon to be a nation of philosophers, nor am I certain it is desirable that there should be.
I have been as sincere a worshipper of Aurora as the Greeks.
There is always a present and extant life, be it better or worse, which all combine to uphold.
As for doing good; that is one of the professions which is full. Moreover I have tried it fairly and, strange as it may seem, am satisfied that it does not agree with my constitution.
Nay, be a Columbus to whole new continents and worlds within you, opening new channels, not of trade, but of thought.
I have the habit of attention to such excess, that my senses get no rest - but suffer from a constant strain.
Where there is an observatory and a telescope, we expect that any eyes will see new worlds at once.
There is but one stage for the peasant and the actor.
Instead of noblemen, let us have noble villages of men.
There is more of good nature than of good sense at the bottom of most marriages.
God reigns when we take a liberal view, when a liberal view is presented to us.
To be awake is to be alive.
I cannot read a single word of the Hindoos without being elevated.
A truly good book teaches me better than to read it. I must soon lay it down, and commence living on its hint. What I began by reading, I must finish by acting.
Through our own recovered innocence we discern the innocence of our neighbors.
We know but a few men, a great many coats and breeches.
Every people have gods to suit their circumstances.
If it is surely the means to the highest end we know, can any work be humble or disgusting? Will it not rather be elevating as a ladder, the means by which we are translated?
The man who is dissatisfied with himself, what can he do?
I have found that no exertion of the legs can bring two minds much nearer to one another.
It is an interesting question how far men would retain their relative rank if they were divested of their clothes.
It is too late to be studying Hebrew; it is more important to understand even the slang of today.