Henry David Thoreau

The stars are the apexes of what triangles!

What sort of philosophers are we, who know absolutely nothing about the origin and destiny of cats?

There is no value in life except what you choose to place upon it and no happiness in any place except what you bring to it yourself.

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

Men have become the tools of their trade.

You must get your living by loving, or at least half your life is a failure.

If all you can do is crawl, start crawling.

To him whose elastic and vigorous thought keeps pace with the sun, the day is a perpetual morning.

A woman’s heart must be of such a size and no larger, else it must be pressed small, like Chinese feet; her happiness is to be made as cakes are, by a fixed recipe.

The easy confidence with which I know another man’s religion is folly teaches me to suspect that my own is also.

This report, by its very length, defends itself against the risk of being read.

It is not he who gains the exact point in dispute who scores most in controversy – but he who has shown the better temper.

Man has imagined a heaven, and has left entirely out of it the supremest of all his delights…sexual intercourse!…His heaven is like himself: strange, interesting, astonishing, grotesque. I give you my word, it has not a single feature in it that he actually values.

When setting out on a journey, do not seek advice from those who have never left home.

And when a woman’s will is as strong as the man’s who wants to govern her, half her strength must be concealment.

Forget and forgive. This is not difficult when properly understood. It means forget inconvenient duties, then forgive yourself for forgetting. By rigid practice and stern determination, it comes easy.

Solvency is maintained by means of a national debt, on the principle, If you will not lend me the money, how can I pay you?

Sometimes people mistake the way I talk for what I am thinking.

Tell me who your heroes are and I’ll tell you who you’ll turn out to be.

Let your boat of life be light, packed with only what you need – a homely home and simple pleasures, one or two friends, worth the name, someone to love and someone to love you, a cat, a dog, and a pipe or two, enough to eat and enough to wear, and a little more than enough to drink; for thirst is a dangerous thing.

In this magical hour, as the black ink sky fades to forget-me-not grey and the Cyprus trees emerge from the shadows, I tune in to my heart. In clarity, I choose to step into freedom to bring lightness of being and to be love.