Quotes by Henry David Thoreau
It is never too late to give up our prejudices.
It is an interesting question how far men would retain their relative rank if they were divested of their clothes.
Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.
Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed, and in such desperate enterprises? If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.
I put a piece of paper under my pillow, and when I could not sleep I wrote in the dark.
What's the use of a fine house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on?
I have a great deal of company in the house, especially in the morning when nobody calls.
Any fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it.
It is the greatest of all advantages to enjoy no advantage at all.
Do not worry if you have built your castles in the air. They are where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.
I am sorry to think that you do not get a man's most effective criticism until you provoke him. Severe truth is expressed with some bitterness.
The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.
Not only must we be good, but we must also be good for something.
There is no value in life except what you choose to place upon it and no happiness in any place except what you bring to it yourself.
How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.
We know but a few men, a great many coats and breeches.
The language of friendship is not words but meanings.
Being is the great explainer.
There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.
It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?
All endeavor calls for the ability to tramp the last mile, shape the last plan, endure the last hours toil. The fight to the finish spirit is the one... characteristic we must posses if we are to face the future as finishers.
Politics is the gizzard of society, full of grit and gravel, and the two political parties are its opposite halves - sometimes split into quarters - which grind on each other. Not only individuals but states have thus a confirmed dyspepsia.
It appears to be a law that you cannot have a deep sympathy with both man and nature.
If a man walks in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer. But if he spends his days as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making the earth bald before her time, he is deemed an industrious and enterprising citizen.
Live your life, do your work, then take your hat.
