Henry David Thoreau

If I repent of anything, it is very likely to be my good behavior.

This American government – what is it but a tradition, though a recent one, endeavoring to transmit itself unimpaired to posterity, but each instant losing some of its integrity? It has not the vitality and force of a single living man; for a single man can bend it to his will.

Humility like the darkness, reveals the heavenly lights.

Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes.

This world is but a canvas to our imagination.

Nothing is so much to be feared as fear.

Life at its noblest leaves mere happiness far behind; and indeed cannot endure it. Happiness is not the object of life: life has no object: it is an end in itself; and courage consists in the readiness to sacrifice happiness for an intenser quality of life.

Any fool can make a rule, and every fool will mind it.

Whatever advice you give, be short.

Amuse not thy self therefore with the numerous Opinions of the World, nor value thy self upon verbal Orthodoxy, Philosophy, or thy Skill in Tongues, or Knowledge of the Fathers; (too much the Business and Vanity of the World). But in this rejoyce, That thou knowest God, that is the Lord, who exerciseth loving Kindness, and Judgment; and Righteousness in the Earth.

The foundations of a person are not in matter but in spirit.

Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival.

So much of our time is spent in preparation, so much in routine, and so much in retrospect, that the amount of each person’s genius is confined to a very few hours.

Fear always springs from ignorance.

Be like a tree and let the dead leaves drop.

Although the road is never ending, take a step and keep walking, do not look fearfully into the distance…on the path let the heart be your guide for the body is hesitant and full of fear.

Suppose the world were only one of God’s jokes, would you work any the less to make it a good joke instead of a bad one?

But men must know, that in this theatre of man’s life it is reserved only for God and angels to be lookers on.

You must do the thing you think you cannot do.

Anger and jealousy can no more bear to lose sight of their objects than love.

Denial ain’t just a river in Egypt.