Henry David Thoreau

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

Write while the heat is in you. The writer who postpones the recording of his thoughts uses an iron which has cooled to burn a hole with. He cannot inflame the minds of his audience.

To know that we know what we know, and that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge.

Youth gets together with their materials to build a bridge to the moon or maybe a palace on earth; then in middle age they decide to build a woodshed with them instead.

I quietly declare war with the State, after my fashion, though I will still make use and get advantage of her as I can, as is usual in such cases.

I lose my respect for the man who can make the mystery of sex the subject of a coarse jest, yet when you speak earnestly and seriously on the subject, is silent.

A banker is a fellow who lends his umbrella when the sun is shining and wants it back the minute it begins to rain.

Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that if the British Empire and Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, This was their finest hour.

Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies.

When you place yourself in a position to help another, you will discover your greater capabilities.

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

Self-pity in its early stages is as snug as a feather mattress. Only when it hardens does it become uncomfortable.

No man is fit to command another that cannot command himself.

Listening to both sides does not necessarily bring about a correct judgment.

While I know myself as a creation of God, I am also obligated to realize and remember that everyone else and everything else are also God’s creation.

It is better that some should be unhappy rather than that none should be happy, which would be the case in a general state of equality.

We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.

From a worldly point of view, there is no mistake so great as that of being always right.

He that complies against his will is of his own opinion still.

It is the greatest of all advantages to enjoy no advantage at all.

What fugitive from his country can also escape from himself.