Henry David Thoreau

Most of the luxuries and many of the so-called comforts of life are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind.

If we were left solely to the wordy wit of legislators in Congress for our guidance, uncorrected by the seasonal experience and the effectual complaints of the people, America would not long retain her rank among the nations.

Is not disease the rule of existence? There is not a lily pad floating on the river but has been riddled by insects. Almost every shrub and tree has its gall, oftentimes esteemed its chief ornament and hardly to be distinguished from the fruit. If misery loves company, misery has company enough. Now, at midsummer, find me a perfect leaf or fruit.

What is a country without rabbits and partridges? They are among the most simple and indigenous animal products; ancient and venerable families known to antiquity as to modern times; of the very hue and substance of Nature, nearest allied to leaves and to the ground.

Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all.

I had three chairs in my house; one for solitude, two for friendship, three for society.

The very impossibility in which I find myself to prove that God is not, discovers to me his existence.

To hold a pen is to be at war.

Gossip is a sort of smoke that comes from the dirty tobacco-pipes of those who diffuse it: it proves nothing but the bad taste of the smoker.

Respect the child. Be not too much his parent. Trespass not on his solitude.

Thank God men cannot fly, and lay waste the sky as well as the earth.

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

I don’t do quagmires.

Raphael paints wisdom; Handel sings it, Phidias carves it, Shakespeare writes it, Wren builds it, Columbus sails it, Luther preaches it, Washington arms it, Watt mechanizes it.

With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts.

Say what you have to say and first time you come to a sentence with a grammatical ending; sit down.

All the variety, all the charm, all the beauty of life is made up of light and shadow.

Water is the only drink for a wise man.

One ought never to turn one’s back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double the danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half. Never run away from anything. Never!

It’s easy to have faith in yourself and have discipline when you’re a winner, when you’re number one. What you got to have is faith and discipline when you’re not a winner.

As for accomplishments, I just did what I had to do as things came along.