Henry David Thoreau

Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.

Thaw with her gentle persuasion is more powerful than Thor with his hammer. The one melts, the other breaks into pieces.

One of the most attractive things about the flowers is their beautiful reserve.

I did not wish to take a cabin passage, but rather to go before the mast and on the deck of the world, for there I could best see the moonlight amid the mountains. I do not wish to go below now.

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

As if you could kill time without injuring eternity.

Patron: One who countenances, supports or protects. Commonly a wretch who supports with insolence, and is paid with flattery.

He that would be superior to external influences must first become superior to his own passions.

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

A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere. Before him, I may think aloud.

No great man ever complains of want of opportunity.

Nothing in life is more liberating than to fight for a cause larger than yourself, something that encompasses you but is not defined by your existence alone.

Wise men make more opportunities than they find.

There is a great deal of human nature in people.

They have a right to censure that have a heart to help: the rest is cruelty, not justice.

Play not with paradoxes. That caustic which you handle in order to scorch others may happen to sear your own fingers and make them dead to the quality of things.

In the long run you hit only what you aim at. Therefore, though you should fail immediately, you had better aim at something high.

Humility and knowledge in poor clothes excel pride and ignorance in costly attire.

Great hearts steadily send forth the secret forces that incessantly draw great events.

I never think at all when I write. Nobody can do two things at the same time and do them both well.

You always do what you want to do. This is true with every act. You may say that you had to do something, or that you were forced to, but actually, whatever you do, you do by choice. Only you have the power to choose for yourself.