Henry David Thoreau

Having each some shingles of thought well dried, we sat and whittled them.

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

A man cannot be said to succeed in this life who does not satisfy one friend.

To inherit property is not to be born – it is to be still-born, rather.

I was born upon thy bank, river, my blood flows in thy stream, and thou meanderest forever. At the bottom of my dream.

Should not every apartment in which man dwells be lofty enough to create some obscurity overhead, where flickering shadows may play at evening about the rafters?

In taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy; but in passing it over, he is superior.

A squirrel dying in front of your house may be more relevant to your interests right now than people dying in Africa.

The French are wiser than they seem, and the Spaniards seem wiser than they are.

I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me.

Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds.

Obviously, as you grow up, no one’s ever 100 percent proud of every decision that they’ve made, and that’s OK. I think as long as you learn from your mistakes and don’t make them over and over again, you’re on the right path.

The golden moments in the stream of life rush past us and we see nothing but sand; the angels come to visit us, and we only know them when they’re gone.

I shall not wholly die, and a great part of me will escape the grave.

The boy gathers materials for a temple, and then when he is thirty, concludes to build a woodshed.

Some critics will write ‘Maya Angelou is a natural writer’ – which is right after being a natural heart surgeon.

I am not an Athenian, nor a Greek, but a citizen of the world.

The mass never comes up to the standard of its best member, but on the contrary degrades itself to a level with the lowest.

A good End cannot sanctifie evil Means; nor must we ever do Evil, that Good may come of it. Some Folks think they may Scold, Rail, Hate, Rob and Kill too; so it be but for God’s sake. But nothing in us unlike him, can please him.

The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.

It is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.