Henry David Thoreau

To a philosopher all news, as it is called, is gossip, an they who edit and read it are old women over their tea.

I must walk toward Oregon, and not toward Europe. And that way the nation is moving, and I may say that mankind progress from east to west. We go eastward to realize history and study the works of art and literature, retracing the steps of the race; we go westward as into the future, with a spirit of enterprise and adventure.

Live your life, do your work, then take your hat.

I did not wish to take a cabin passage, but rather to go before the mast and on the deck of the world, for there I could best see the moonlight amid the mountains. I do not wish to go below now.

We need the tonic of wildness…At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be indefinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable. We can never have enough of nature.

The words which express our faith and piety are not definite; yet they are significant and fragrant like frankincense to superior natures.

Their learning is like bread in a besieged town: every man gets a little, but no man gets a full meal.

Once you learn to quit, it becomes a habit.

No two on earth in all things can agree. All have some daring singularity.

What really flatters a man is that you think him worth flattering.

To act from pure benevolence is not possible for finite human beings, Human benevolence is mingled with vanity, interest, or some other motive.

Let no man pull you low enough to hate him.

Never do anything by halves if you want to get away with it. Be outrageous. Go the whole hog. Make sure everything you do is so completely crazy it’s unbelievable.

Great people are they who see that spiritual is stronger than any material force, that thoughts rule the world.

The disgrace of others often keeps tender minds from vice.

Coffee is good for talent, but genius wants prayer.

Fortitude is the marshal of thought, the armor of the will, and the fort of reason.

Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted… but to weigh and consider.

All promise outruns performance.

If a madman were to come into this room with a stick in his hand, no doubt we should pity the state of his mind; but our primary consideration would be to take care of ourselves. We should knock him down first, and pity him afterwards.

The triumphs of peace have been in some proximity to war. Whilst the hand was still familiar with the sword-hilt, whilst the habits of the camp were still visible in the port and complexion of the gentleman, his intellectual power culminated; the compression and tension of these stern conditions is a training for the finest and softest arts, and can rarely be compensated in tranquil times, except by some analogous vigor drawn from occupations as hardy as war.