Henry David Thoreau

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

I know myself as a human entity; the scene, so to speak, or thoughts are affection; and am sensible of certain doubleness by which I can stand as remote from myself as from another. However intense my experience, I am conscious of the presence and criticism of a part of me, which, as it were, is no part of me, but spectator, sharing no experience, but taking note of it, and that is no more I than it is you.

Our life is frittered away by detail… simplify, simplify.

Go fish and hunt far and wide day by day – farther and wider – and rest thee by many brooks and hearth-sides without misgiving. Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth. Rise free from care before the dawn, and seek adventures. Let the noon find thee by other lakes, and the night overtake thee everywhere at home. There are no larger fields than these, no worthier games than may here be played.

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.

If a man walks in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer. But if he spends his days as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making the earth bald before her time, he is deemed an industrious and enterprising citizen.

By all means let’s be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brains drop out.

Revenge is a kind of wild justice, which the more a man’s nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out.

When a resolute young fellow steps up to the great bully, the world, and takes him boldly by the beard, he is often surprised to find it comes off in his hand, and that it was only tied on to scare away the timid adventurers.

I refused to attend his funeral. But I wrote a very nice letter explaining that I approved of it.

Men know that women are an over-match for them, and therefore they choose the weakest or most ignorant. If they did not think so, they never could be afraid of women knowing as much as themselves.

If anyone were to ask me what I want out of life I would say- the opportunity for doing something useful, for in no other way, I am convinced, can true happiness be attained.

Great works are performed not by strength, but by perseverance.

To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same courage that a soldier needs.

There is nothing that can be changed more completely than human nature when the job is taken in hand early enough.

Nothing is more costly, nothing is more sterile, than vengeance.

My religion? Well, my dear, I am a Millionaire. That is my religion.

If you want the time to pass quickly, just give your note for 90 days.

I can live for two months on a good compliment.

No matter how plain a woman may be, if truth and honesty are written across her face, she will be beautiful.

They change their climate, not their soul, who rush across the sea.