Henry David Thoreau

Things do not change; we change.

Public opinion is a weak tyrant compared with our own private opinion. What a man thinks of himself, that it is which determines, or rather indicates, his fate.

There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.

Every creature is better alive than dead, men and moose and pine trees, and he who understands it aright will rather preserve its life than destroy it.

We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake . . . by an infinite expectation of the dawn, which does not forsake us in our soundest sleep. I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor.

I quietly declare war with the State, after my fashion, though I will still make use and get advantage of her as I can, as is usual in such cases.

He who has never hoped can never despair.

Allow children to be happy in their own way, for what better way will they find?

The arts and inventions of each period are only its costume, and do not invigorate men.

People only see what they are prepared to see.

Arguments are like fire-arms which a man may keep at home but should not carry about with him.

You are perfect. An exquisitely fine work of art, labor of love, suspended in silence. Bejeweled, trembling, kissed by a breeze, mesmerized by your beauty. You await in silence, beckoning me to a silken-wrapped slumber.

Haven’t you learned yet that I put something more than whisky into my speeches.

There is no daily chore so trivial that it cannot be made important by skipping it two days running.

Grow old along with me; the best is yet to be.

I was exceedingly delighted with the waltz, and also with the polka. These differ in name, but there the difference ceases

It is easy – terribly easy – to shake a man’s faith in himself. To take advantage of that to break a man’s spirit is devil’s work.

They are ill discoverers that think there is no land, when they can see nothing but sea.

So far as a person thinks; they are free.

I think that we may safely trust a good deal more than we do. We may waive just so much care of ourselves as we honestly bestow elsewhere.

All my life affection has been showered upon me, and every forward step I have made has been taken in spite of it.