Henry David Thoreau

True, there are architects so called in this country, and I have heard of one at least possessed with the idea of making architectural ornaments have a core of truth, a necessity, and hence a beauty, as if it were a revelation to him. All very well perhaps from his point of view, but only a little better than the common dilettantism.

The broadest and most prevalent error requires the most disinterested virtue to sustain it.

Associate reverently, as much as you can, with your loftiest thoughts.

The government of the world I live in was not framed, like that of Britain, in after-dinner conversations over the wine.

Love must be as much a light, as it is a flame.

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put foundations under them.

Fear defeats more people than any other one thing in the world.

Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.

The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear.

I can forgive Alfred Nobel for having invented dynamite, but only a fiend in human form could have invented the Nobel Prize.

He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils; for time is the greatest innovator.

The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.

It were better to be of no church, than to be bitter for any.

If a thousand men were not to pay their tax-bills this year, that would not be a violent and bloody measure, as it would be to pay them, and enable the State to commit violence and shed innocent blood. This is, in fact, the definition of a peaceable revolution, if any such is possible.

The arts and inventions of each period are only its costume, and do not invigorate men.

I would give all the wealth of the world, and all the deeds of all the heroes, for one true vision.

Nature always wears the colors of the spirit.

Leisure and curiosity might soon make great advances in useful knowledge, were they not diverted by minute emulation and laborious trifles.

Stress is caused by being here but wanting to be there.

All the great ages have been ages of belief.

Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper.