Henry David Thoreau

Behave so the aroma of your actions may enhance the general sweetness of the atmosphere.

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

New ideas come into this world somewhat like falling meteors, with a flash and an explosion, and perhaps somebody

None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm

People die of fright and live of confidence.

A truly good book teaches me better than to read it. I must soon lay it down, and commence living on its hint. What I began by reading, I must finish by acting.

Men know that women are an over-match for them, and therefore they choose the weakest or most ignorant. If they did not think so, they never could be afraid of women knowing as much as themselves.

I have to live for others and not for myself: that’s middle-class morality.

The only sin that we never forgive in each other is a difference in opinion.

Time will bring to light whatever is hidden; it will cover up and conceal what is now shining in splendor.

Seize the day, put no trust in tomorrow. [Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero.Lat.]

As peace is the end of war, so to be idle is the ultimate purpose of the busy.

If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance.

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.

Fear always springs from ignorance.

Life must be filled up, and the man who is not capable of intellectual pleasures must content himself with such as his senses can afford.

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

Don’t be afraid. Be focused. Be determined. Be hopeful. Be empowered.

Raise your words, not your voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder.

Subordination tends greatly to human happiness. Were we all upon an equality, we should have no other enjoyment than mere animal pleasure.

Sir, you have but two topics, yourself and me. I am sick of both.