Henry David Thoreau

All misfortune is but a stepping stone to fortune.

Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after.

The cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.

Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but religiously follows the new.

Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.

We boast our emancipation from many superstitions; but if we have broken any idols, it is through a transfer of idolatry.

Discretion of speech is more than eloquence, and to speak agreeably to him with whom we deal is more than to speak in good words, or in good order.

Not one word, not one gesture of yours shall I, could I, ever forget…

Why should we take advice on sex from the pope? If he knows anything about it, he shouldn’t!

The luster of diamonds is invigorated by the interposition of darker bodies; the lights of a picture are created by the shades; the highest pleasure which nature has indulged to sensitive perception is that of rest after fatigue.

Life is not an exact science, it is an art.

The stupidity of men always invites the insolence of power.

You have set up in New York Harbor a monstrous idol which you call Liberty. The only thing that remains to complete that monument is to put on its pedestal the inscription written by Dante on the gate of hell: All hope abandon ye who enter here.

Would not love see returning penitence afar off, and fall on its neck and kiss it?

The greatest man in history was the poorest.

Our deeds still travel with us from afar, and what we have been makes us what we are.

He will always be a slave who does not know how to live upon a little.

This report, by its very length, defends itself against the risk of being read.

Arguments are like fire-arms which a man may keep at home but should not carry about with him.

We learned about dignity and decency – that how hard you work matters more than how much you make… that helping others means more than just getting ahead yourself.