Henry David Thoreau

The man who goes alone can start today; but he who travels with another must wait till the other is ready, and it may be along time before they get off.

It is never too late to give up our prejudices.

The really efficient laborer will be found not to crowd his day with work, but will saunter to his task surrounded by a wide halo of ease and leisure.

Eastward I go only by force; but westward I go free.

We are always paid for our suspicion by finding what we suspect.

Goodness is the only investment which never fails.

The sum of wisdom is that time is never lost that is devoted to work.

Always stay true to yourself and never let what somebody else says distract you from your goals.

I do not say that I’ll depart tomorrow because even today I still arrive.

Men are what their mothers made them.

Never marry but for love; but see that thou lovest what is lovely.

Whether he knew it or not, the life he lived was his penance. Punishing himself, for what he believes are his sins. Consciously or subconsciously, he creates the world he lives in. Never believing that he is deserving happiness, deserving joy. His self-destructive nature, in his eyes, and his eyes only, is justified. Everyone is deserving absolution, but he needs to understand, that he is the only one able to forgive himself.

As to conforming outwardly, and living your own life inwardly, I have not a very high opinion of that course.

I believe in Michelangelo, Velasquez, and Rembrandt; in the might of design, the mystery of color, the redemption of all things by Beauty everlasting, and the message of Art that has made these hands blessed. Amen. Amen.

The highest panegyric, therefore, that private virtue can receive, is the praise of servants.

Beauty is all very well at first sight; but who ever looks at it when it has been in the house three days?

Earth laughs in flowers.

Self-sacrifice is the real miracle out of which all the reported miracles grow.

There is nothing, Sir, too little for so little a creature as man. It is by studying little things that we attain the great art of having as little misery and as much happiness as possible.

But most of us are apt to settle within ourselves that the man who blocks our way is odious, and not to mind causing him a little of the disgust which his personality excites in ourselves.

No great man ever complains of want of opportunity.