Henry David Thoreau

The man who goes alone can start today; but he who travels with another must wait till that other is ready.

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 lawyer’s truth is not Truth, but consistency or a consistent expediency.

To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts. Every man is tasked to make his life, even in its details, worthy of the contemplation of his most elevated and critical hour.

Thaw with her gentle persuasion is more powerful than Thor with his hammer. The one melts, the other breaks into pieces.

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation.

Tobacco and opium have broad backs, and will cheerfully carry the load of armies, if you choose to make them pay high for such joy as they give and such harm as they do.

It is wonderful to think how men of very large estates not only spend their yearly income, but are often actually in want of money. It is clear, they have not value for what they spend.

There is little difference in people, but that little difference makes a big difference. The little difference is attitude. The big difference is whether it is positive or negative.

As the births of living creatures, at first, are ill-shapen: so are all Innovations, which are the births of time.

Sir, I have found you an argument. I am not obliged to find you an understanding.

It is wonderful when a calculation is made, how little the mind is actually employed in the discharge of any profession.

The happiest conversation is that of which nothing is distinctly remembered but a general effect of pleasing impression.

In the best, the friendliest and simplest relations flattery or praise is necessary, just as grease is necessary to keep wheels turning.

It seems to me that the god that is commonly worshipped in civilized countries is not at all divine, though he bears a divine name, but is the overwhelming authority and respectability of mankind combined. Men reverence one another, not yet God.

It is natural to die as to be born.

Anything too stupid to be said is sung.

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

To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart.

We must not inquire too curiously into motives… They are apt to become feeble in the utterance: the aroma is mixed with the grosser air. We must keep the germinating grain away from the light.

For what is love itself, for the one we love best? An enfolding of immeasurable cares which yet are better than any joys outside our love.