Henry David Thoreau quotes page 1

1817-1862, American author, philosopher, naturalist and transcendalist

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you've imagined. As you simplify
your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler.
Henry David Thoreau

An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.
Henry David Thoreau

It is not enough to be busy. The question is: what are we busy about?
Henry David Thoreau

It takes two to speak truth - one to speak and another to hear.
Henry David Thoreau

My friend is one who takes me for what I am.
Henry David Thoreau

You cannot kill time without injuring eternity.
Henry David Thoreau

Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.
Henry David Thoreau

In the long run men hit only what they aim at.
Henry David Thoreau

I came into this world, not chiefly to make this a good place to live in, but to live in it, be
it good or bad.
Henry David Thoreau

Never look back unless you are planning to go that way.
Henry David Thoreau

Nothing is so much to be feared as fear.
Henry David Thoreau

A true account of the actual is the rarest poetry, for common sense always takes a hasty
and superficial view.
Henry David Thoreau

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

Men will lie on their backs, talking about the fall of man, and never make an effort to get up.
Henry David Thoreau

It is never too late to give up your prejudices.
Henry David Thoreau

Nature is full of genius, full of the divinity; so that not a snowflake escapes its fashioning
hand.
Henry David Thoreau

The perception of beauty is a moral test.
Henry David Thoreau

Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify.
Henry David Thoreau

How does it become a man to behave toward this American government today? I answer
that he cannot without disgrace be associated with it.
Henry David Thoreau

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.
Henry David Thoreau

I believe in the forest, and in the meadow, and in the night in which the corn grows.
Henry David Thoreau

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.
Henry David Thoreau

Through our own recovered innocence we discern the innocence of our neighbors.
Henry David Thoreau

One must maintain a little bittle of summer, even in the middle of winter.
Henry David Thoreau

Be not simply good; be good for something.
Henry David Thoreau

Cultivate the habit of early rising. It is unwise to keep the head long on a level with the feet.
Henry David Thoreau

It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.
Henry David Thoreau

Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.
Henry David Thoreau

Goodness is the only investment that never fails.
Henry David Thoreau

Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other's eyes for an
instant?
Henry David Thoreau

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 they had to teach; and not, when I came to die,
discover that I had not lived.
Henry David Thoreau

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