Henry David Thoreau

A perfectly healthy sentence, it is true, is extremely rare. For the most part we miss the hue and fragrance of the thought; as if we could be satisfied with the dews of the morning or evening without their colors, or the heavens without their azure.

In eternity there is indeed something true and sublime. But all these times and places and occasions are now and here. God himself culminates in the present moment and will never be more divine in the lapse of the ages. Time is but a stream I go a-fishing in. I drink at it, but when I drink I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. Its thin current slides away but eternity remains.

Wealth is the ability to fully experience life.

Nowadays the host does not admit you to his hearth, but has got the mason to build one for yourself somewhere in his alley, and hospitality is the art of keeping you at the greatest distance.

If I seem to boast more than is becoming, my excuse is that I brag for humanity rather than for myself.

Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in.

There be three things which make a nation great and prosperous: a fertile soil, busy workshops, easy conveyance for men and goods from place to place.

Criticism should not be querulous and wasting, all knife and root-puller, but guiding, instructive, inspiring.

I have learned throughout my life as a composer chiefly through my mistakes and pursuits of false assumptions, not by my exposure to founts of wisdom and knowledge.

Blame is safer than praise.

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

What a lot of things there are a man can do without.

The Chinese said of themselves several thousand years ago: China is a sea that salts all the waters that flow into it. Theres another Chinese saying about their country which is much more modernit dates only from the fourth century. This is the saying: The tail of China is large and will not be wagged. I like that one. The British democracy approves the principles of movable party heads and unwaggable national tails. It is due to the working of these important forces that I have the honour to be addressing you at this moment.

Work and thou canst escape the reward; whether the work be fine or course, planting corn or writing epics, so only it be honest work, done to thine own approbation, it shall earn a reward to the senses as well as to the thought.

A little learning is a dangerous thing, but we must take that risk because a little is as much as our biggest heads can hold.

Every man has his own vocation, talent is the call.

They are not only idle who do nothing, but they are idle also who might be better employed.

Sir, you have but two topics, yourself and me. I am sick of both.

My chief want in life is someone who shall make me do what I can.

For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind.

Not only must we be good, but we must also be good for something.