Henry David Thoreau
148 quotations
The highest law gives a thing to him who can use it.
The purity men love is like the mists which envelope the earth, and not like the azure ether beyond.
Many men go fishing their entire lives without knowing it is not fish they are after.
Be not simply good; be good for something.
To regret deeply is to live afresh.
What is called resignation is confirmed desperation.
That man is richest whose pleasures are the cheapest.
A man sits as many risks as he runs.
Any fool can make a rule, and every fool will mind it.
Our manners have been corrupted by communication with the saints.
We are constantly invited to be who we are.
Explore thyself. Herein are demanded the eye and the nerve.
I have been breaking silence these twenty-three years and have hardly made a rent in it.
We cannot well do without our sins; they are the highway of our virtue.
After the first blush of sin comes its indifference.
Sobriety, severity, and self-respect are the foundations of all true sociality.
I have never found a companion so companionable as solitude.
I would rather sit on a pumpkin, and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion.
If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment.
The stars are the apexes of what triangles!
You must get your living by loving, or at least half your life is a failure.
We were born to succeed, not to fail.
We must walk consciously only part way toward our goal, and then leap in the dark to our success.
If I repent of anything, it is very likely to be my good behavior.
Behave so the aroma of your actions may enhance the general sweetness of the atmosphere.