Henry David Thoreau Quotes And Sayings

Do Not Hire A Man Who Does Your Work For Money, But Him Who Does It For Love Of It.

Heaven Is Under Our Feet As Well As Over Our Heads.

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.

Thaw With Her Gentle Persuasion Is More Powerful Than Thor With His Hammer. The One Melts, The Other Breaks Into Pieces.

The Savage In Man Is Never Quite Eradicated.

How Does It Become A Man To Behave Towards The American Government Today? I Answer, That He Cannot Without Disgrace Be Associated With It.

An Early-morning Walk Is A Blessing For The Whole Day.

The Heart Is Forever Inexperienced.

The Youth Gets Together His Materials To Build A Bridge To The Moon, Or, Perchance, A Palace Or Temple On The Earth, And, At Length, The Middle-aged Man Concludes To Build A Woodshed With Them.

In Human Intercourse The Tragedy Begins, Not When There Is Misunderstanding About Words, But When Silence Is Not Understood.

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.

Our Inventions Are Wont To Be Pretty Toys, Which Distract Our Attention From Serious Things. They Are But Improved Means To An Unimproved End.

The Fibers Of All Things Have Their Tension And Are Strained Like The Strings Of An Instrument.

It Is Not Enough To Be Busy. So Are The Ants. The Question Is: What Are We Busy About?

Do Not Trouble Yourself Much To Get New Things, Whether Clothes Or Friends... Sell Your Clothes And Keep Your Thoughts.

There Are A Thousand Hacking At The Branches Of Evil To One Who Is Striking At The Root.

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.

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.

If Misery Loves Company, Misery Has Company Enough.

In Wildness Is The Preservation Of The World.

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.

True Friendship Can Afford True Knowledge. It Does Not Depend On Darkness And Ignorance.

You Must Live In The Present, Launch Yourself On Every Wave, Find Your Eternity In Each Moment.

Every Man Casts A Shadow; Not His Body Only, But His Imperfectly Mingled Spirit. This Is His Grief. Let Him Turn Which Way He Will, It Falls Opposite To The Sun; Short At Noon, Long At Eve. Did You Never See It?

As In Geology, So In Social Institutions, We May Discover The Causes Of All Past Changes In The Present Invariable Order Of Society.

I Was More Independent Than Any Farmer In Concord, For I Was Not Anchored To A House Or Farm, But Could Follow The Bent Of My Genius, Which Is A Very Crooked One, Every Moment.

While Civilization Has Been Improving Our Houses, It Has Not Equally Improved The Men Who Are To Inhabit Them. It Has Created Palaces, But It Was Not So Easy To Create Noblemen And Kings.

There Is One Consolation In Being Sick; And That Is The Possibility That You May Recover To A Better State Than You Were Ever In Before.

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.

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?

Is The Babe Young? When I Behold It, It Seems More Venerable Than The Oldest Man.

Justice Is Sweet And Musical; But Injustice Is Harsh And Discordant.

Nay, Be A Columbus To Whole New Continents And Worlds Within You, Opening New Channels, Not Of Trade, But Of Thought.

Men Have A Respect For Scholarship And Learning Greatly Out Of Proportion To The Use They Commonly Serve.

The Rarest Quality In An Epitaph Is Truth.

It Is Remarkable How Closely The History Of The Apple Tree Is Connected With That Of Man.

I Had Three Chairs In My House; One For Solitude, Two For Friendship, Three For Society.

If An Injustice Requires You To Be The Agent Of Injustice To Another, Then, I Say, Break The Law. Let Your Life Be A Counter-friction To Stop The Government Machine.

I Wanted To Live Deep And Suck Out All The Marrow Of Life, To Live So Sturdily And Spartanlike As To Put To Rout All That Was Not Life.

It Is An Interesting Question How Far Men Would Retain Their Relative Rank If They Were Divested Of Their Clothes.