Henry David Thoreau

Shams and delusions are esteemed for soundest truths, while reality is fabulous. If men would steadily observe realities only, and not allow themselves to be deluded, life … would be like a fairy tale and the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments.

To have done anything just for money is to have been truly idle.

There is no value in life except what you choose to place upon it and no happiness in any place except what you bring to it yourself.

The fibers of all things have their tension and are strained like the strings of an instrument.

There is no rule more invariable than that we are paid for our suspicions by finding what we suspect.

The way by which you may get money almost without exception leads downward.

Sometimes people mistake the way I talk for what I am thinking.

There’s nothing you can know that isn’t known.

All styles are good except the tiresome kind.

It isn’t enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn’t enough to believe in it. One must work at it.

None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm

Half a man’s wisdom goes with his courage.

Every doctor will allow a colleague to decimate a whole countryside sooner than violate the bond of professional etiquette by giving him away.

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

The only living works are those which have drained much of the author’s own life into them.

There is no such whetstone, to sharpen a good wit and encourage a will to learning, as is praise.

The function of vice is to keep virtue within reasonable bounds.

It is a fine thing to be honest, but it is also very important to be right.

In every author let us distinguish the man from his works.

Every other author may aspire to praise; the lexicographer can only hope to escape reproach, and even this negative recompense has been yet granted to very few.

We shall see but a little way if we require to understand what we see.