Henry David Thoreau

The squirrel that you kill in jest, dies in earnest.

As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler; solitude will not be solitude, poverty will not be poverty, nor weakness weakness.

All voting is a sort of gaming, like checkers or backgammon, with a slight moral tinge to it, a playing with right and wrong.

The most I can do for my friend is simply be his friend.

What right have I to grieve, who have not ceased to wonder?

If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of government, let it go, let it go: perchance it will wear smooth.

Man is not weak; knowledge is more than equivalent to force.

Everything that is made beautiful and fair and lovely is made for the eye of one who sees.

When Nature has work to be done, she creates a genius to do it.

It is not true that people are naturally equal for no two people can be together for even a half an hour without one acquiring an evident superiority over the other.

Silence is not always tact, but it is tact that is golden, not silence.

People care more about being thought to have taste than about being thought either good, clever or amiable.

You live longer once you realize that any time spent being unhappy is wasted.

It is not where you start but how high you aim that matters for success.

The civilized man has built a coach, but has lost the use of his feet.

All of our actions take their hue from the complexion of the heart, as landscapes their variety from light.

Cities force growth and make people talkative and entertaining, but they also make them artificial.

Much may be made of a Scotchman, if he be caught young.

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

We aim above the mark to hit the mark.

During my life, I have had a few nightmares which happened to me while I was wide awake.