Henry David Thoreau Quotes

If you would convince a man that he does wrong, do right. Men will believe what they see.
Henry David Thoreau

In human intercourse the tragedy begins, not when there is misunderstanding about words, but when silence is not understood.
Henry David Thoreau

In the long run, men hit only what they aim at. Therefore, they had better aim at something high.
Henry David Thoreau

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

It is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.
Henry David Thoreau

It is an interesting question how far men would retain their relative rank if they were divested of their clothes.
Henry David Thoreau

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

It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right.
Henry David Thoreau

It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?
Henry David Thoreau

It is the greatest of all advantages to enjoy no advantage at all.
Henry David Thoreau

It is usually the imagination that is wounded first, rather than the heart; it being much more sensitive.
Henry David Thoreau

It takes two to speak the truth: one to speak, and another to hear.
Henry David Thoreau

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

Law never made men a whit more just.
Henry David Thoreau

Live your life, do your work, then take your hat.
Henry David Thoreau

Make 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 Thoreau

Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after.
Henry David Thoreau

Men are born to succeed, not to fail.
Henry David Thoreau

Men have become the tools of their tools.
Henry David Thoreau

Money is not required to buy one necessity of the soul.
Henry David Thoreau

Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.
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

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

Nature 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 Thoreau

None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.
Henry David Thoreau

Not only must we be good, but we must also be good for something.
Henry David Thoreau

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

Nothing goes by luck in composition. It allows of no tricks. The best you can write will be the best you are.
Henry David Thoreau

Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance; they make the latitudes and longitudes.
Henry David Thoreau

Only he is successful in his business who makes that pursuit which affords him the highest pleasure sustain him.
Henry David Thoreau

Only nature has a right to grieve perpetually, for she only is innocent. Soon the ice will melt, and the blackbirds sing along the river which he frequented, as pleasantly as ever. The same everlasting serenity will appear in this face of God, and we will not be sorrowful, if he is not.
Henry David Thoreau

Only that day dawns to which we are awake.
Henry David Thoreau

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

Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end.
Henry David Thoreau

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

Our moments of inspiration are not lost though we have no particular poem to show for them; for those experiences have left an indelible impression, and we are ever and anon reminded of them.
Henry David Thoreau

Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake.
Henry David Thoreau

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.
Henry David Thoreau

Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked, in which you can walk with love and reverence.
Henry David Thoreau

Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.
Henry David Thoreau

Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all.
Henry David Thoreau

Shall I not have intelligence with the earth? Am I not partly leaves and vegetable mould myself.
Henry David Thoreau

Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb-nail.
Henry David Thoreau

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

Thank God men cannot fly, and lay waste the sky as well as the earth.
Henry David Thoreau

That man is rich whose pleasures are the cheapest.
Henry David Thoreau

Thaw with her gentle persuasion is more powerful than Thor with his hammer. The one melts, the other breaks into pieces.
Henry David Thoreau

The Artist is he who detects and applies the law from observation of the works of Genius, whether of man or Nature. The Artisan is he who merely applies the rules which others have detected.
Henry David Thoreau

The bluebird carries the sky on his back.
Henry David Thoreau

The Brahmins say that in their books there are many predictions of times in which it will rain. But press those books as strongly as you can, you can not get out of them a drop of water. So you can not get out of all the books that contain the best precepts the smallest good deed.
Henry David Thoreau

The cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.
Henry David Thoreau

The fibers of all things have their tension and are strained like the strings of an instrument.
Henry David Thoreau

The finest workers in stone are not copper or steel tools, but the gentle touches of air and water working at their leisure with a liberal allowance of time.
Henry David Thoreau

The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked me what I thought, and attended to my answer.
Henry David Thoreau

The heart is forever inexperienced.
Henry David Thoreau

The language of friendship is not words but meanings.
Henry David Thoreau

The light which puts out our eyes is darkness to us. Only that day dawns to which we are awake. There is more day to dawn. The sun is but a morning star.
Henry David Thoreau

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