Henry David Thoreau

The heart is forever inexperienced.

The government of the world I live in was not framed, like that of Britain, in after-dinner conversations over the wine.

How can they expect a harvest of thought who have not had the seed time of character.

It requires nothing less than a chivalric feeling to sustain a conversation with a lady.

Water is the only drink for a wise man.

We are not what we are, nor do we treat or esteem each other for such, but for what we are capable of being.

Loyalty to the country always. Loyalty to the government when it deserves it.

The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.

Punishment closely follows guilt as its companion.

No facts are to me sacred; none are profane; I simply experiment, an endless seeker, with no past at my back.

In peace, as a wise man, he should make suitable preparation for war.

Whatever advice you give, be short.

There are many victories worse than a defeat.

Nature has given women so much power that the law has very wisely given them little.

One must be an inventor to read well. There is then creative reading as well as creative writing.

The secret source of humor is not joy but sorrow; there is no humor in Heaven.

We are discreet sheep; we wait to see how the drove is going, and then go with the drove.

Pit race against race, religion against religion, prejudice against prejudice. Divide and conquer! We must not let that happen here.

Those who are not looking for happiness are the most likely to find it, because those who are searching forget that the surest way to be happy is to seek happiness for others.

The man who writes about himself and his own time is the only man who writes about all people and about all time.

Temperate temperance is best; intemperate temperance injures the cause of temperance.