Henry David Thoreau

The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked what I thought, and attended to my answer.

In human intercourse the tragedy begins, not when there is misunderstanding about words, but when silence is not understood.

If I knew for a certainty that a man was coming to my house with the conscious design of doing me good, I should run for my life.

Of what significance are the things you can forget.

The rich man is always sold to the institution which makes him rich. Absolutely speaking, the more money, the less virtue.

We feel at first as if some opportunities of kindness and sympathy were lost, but learn afterward that any pure grief is ample recompense for all. That is, if we are faithful; for a spent grief is but sympathy with the soul that disposes events, and is as natural as the resin of Arabian trees. Only nature has a right to grieve perpetually, for she only is innocent. Soon the ice will melt, and the blackbirds sing along the river which he frequented, as pleasantly as ever. The same everlasting serenity will appear in this face of God, and we will not be sorrowful, if he is not.

One soweth and another reapeth is a verity that applies to evil as well as good.

Religion is nothing else but love of God and man.

I would not talk so much about myself if there were anybody else whom I knew as well.

The secret of being miserable is to have leisure to bother about whether you are happy or not. The cure for it is occupation.

Injustice in the end produces independence.

You. too, can determine what you want. You can decide on your major objectives, targets, aims, and destination.

We must never cease to proclaim in fearless tones the great principles of freedom and the rights of man which are the joint inheritance of the English-speaking world and which through Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights, the Habeas Corpus, trial by jury, and the English common law find their most famous expression in the American Declaration of Independence.

A mere literary man is a dull man; a man who is solely a man of business is a selfish man; but when literature and commerce are united, they make a respectable man.

My love for you was like a poem I wrote; one that I disregarded as average. Torn out, thrown away to the rubbish heap, waiting; wishing to be picked up and appreciated by someone else, for the masterpiece that it is.

Wake up, lift your head, open your eyes, and dream. Gaze softly into your heart’s whispers. Notice the pull of your belly and that which makes you come alive. Let your soul speak, beckoning you to embark on that one voyage you can no longer let lie.

Does he council you better who bids you, Money, by right means, if you can: but by any means, make money?

When the eagles are silent the parrots begin to jabber.

Sometimes we are inclined to class those who are once-and-a-half witted with the half-witted, because we appreciate only a third part of their wit.

Dictionaries are like watches, the worst is better than none and the best cannot be expected to go quite true.

The secret of being a bore… is to tell everything.