“If I should sell both my forenoons and afternoons to society, as most appear to do, I am sure that for me there would be nothing left worth living for. ... There is no more fatal blunderer than he who consumes the greater part of his life getting his living.”
— Henry David Thoreau
“That virtue we appreciate is as much ours as another's. We see so much only as we possess.”
— Henry David Thoreau
“Who looks in the sun will see no light else; but also he will see no shadow. Our life revolves unceasingly, but the centre is ever the same, and the wise will regard only the seasons of the soul.”
— Henry David Thoreau
“If a man believes and expects great things of himself, it makes no odds where you put him, or what you show him ... he will be surrounded by grandeur.”
— Henry David Thoreau
“How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.”
— Henry David Thoreau
“Let us not underrate the value of a fact; it will one day flower in a truth.”
— Henry David Thoreau
“You can hardly convince a man of an error in a lifetime, but must content yourself with the reflection that the progress of science is slow. If he is not convinced, his grandchildren may be.”
— Henry David Thoreau
“For many years I was self-appointed inspector of snowstorms and rainstorms, and did my duty faithfully, though I never received one cent for it.”
— Henry David Thoreau
“Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves.”
— Henry David Thoreau
“On the death of a friend, we should consider that the fates through confidence have devolved on us the task of a double living, that we have henceforth to fulfill the promise of our friend's life also, in our own, to the world. ”
— Henry David Thoreau
“Unjust laws exist: shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once?”
— Henry David Thoreau
“The law will never make men free; it is men who have got to make the law free.”
— Henry David Thoreau
“It is not enough to be industrious; so are the ants. What are you industrious about?”
— Henry David Thoreau
“I find it wholesome to be alone the greater part of the time. To be in company, even with the best, is soon wearisome and dissipating. I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude.”
— Henry David Thoreau
“That man is richest whose pleasures are the cheapest.”
— 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