Henry David Thoreau

Find the best quotes, maxims and aphorisms of Henry David Thoreau

Biography : American essayist, poet and philosopher, best known for Walden (a record of his two‑year stay in the woods, during which he lived a simple life close to nature) and for his essay on civil disobedience.
Born: 1817 - Died: 1862
Period:
19th century
Place of birth: United States

United States

Henry David Thoreau - Quotes

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

Live the life you've dreamed.
Henry David Thoreau /

Nature and human life are as various as our several constitutions. Who shall say what prospect life offers to another?
Henry David Thoreau /

nature

The language of excitement is at best picturesque merely. You must be calm before you can utter oracles.
Henry David Thoreau /

I think that there is nothing, not even crime, more opposed to poetry, to philosophy, ay, to life itself than this incessant business.
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 /

water

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

simplicity

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 /

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

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

enthusiasm

It is remarkable how closely the history of the apple tree is connected with that of man.
Henry David Thoreau /

Live your life, do your work, then take your hat.
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 /

God reigns when we take a liberal view, when a liberal view is presented to us.
Henry David Thoreau /

Men have a respect for scholarship and learning greatly out of proportion to the use they commonly serve.
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 it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.
Henry David Thoreau /

They can do without architecture who have no olives nor wines in the cellar.
Henry David Thoreau /

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.
Henry David Thoreau /

A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone.
Henry David Thoreau /

To have done anything just for money is to have been truly idle.
Henry David Thoreau /

If 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 Thoreau /

I have thought there was some advantage even in death, by which we mingle with the herd of common men.
Henry David Thoreau /

If 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 Thoreau /

Nature puts no question and answers none which we mortals ask. She has long ago taken her resolution.
Henry David Thoreau /

Instead of noblemen, let us have noble villages of men.
Henry David Thoreau /

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation.
Henry David Thoreau /

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.
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 /

Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.
Henry David Thoreau /

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